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Ailing Motorola lays off another 2,600 workers
Beleaguered cell phone maker Motorola said Thursday it is laying off another 2,600 workers, bringing the company’s total employee cuts to more than 10,000 since the beginning of last year.
A company spokesman did not say how many of the job losses will take place in its East Valley operations.
However, in a regulatory filing, the company said it will cut 700 jobs in Singapore, 354 in Plantation, Fla., and 120 in Birmingham, England.
In a statement, the company said the reductions will come from all of its business segments and that the company has communicated with all employees who will be leaving over the next several months.
“These are difficult but necessary actions that will help ensure the near- and long-term execution of our business strategy and allow us to improve profitability and strengthen our ability to compete in our chosen markets,” the company reports in a statement.
Motorola will take a pretax charge of about $104 million in the first quarter for severance costs from the new layoffs.
The company operates a Home and Networks Mobility operation in Chandler where it employed 750 as of last September. In June the company announced plans to move the unit to Tempe.
Last week, Motorola bowed to pressure from investors and said it will split off its troubled cell phone business and form two separate, public companies.
Motorola woes
Taking a charge: Besides the new 2,600 layoffs announced Friday, Motorola will take a pretax charge of about $104 million in the first quarter for severance costs from the new layoffs, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Splitting off: Last week, Motorola bowed to pressure from investors and said it will split off its troubled cell phone business and form two separate, public companies.
Previous job cuts: Motorola said it would eliminate 3,500 jobs in January 2007 as part of a two-year cost-cutting plan to save $400 million. The company announced cuts of another 4,000 jobs in May 2007 with hopes of improving its sagging financial and operational results.
Razr buzz wore off: Motorola, the world’s No. 2 handset maker, has eliminated more than 10 percent of its work force since the start of 2007, when it became clear that two years of strong momentum behind the popular Razr phone had collapsed.
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