Google is to 20% of Motorola staff after buying the company, as the internet giant looks to focus on high-end smartphones rather than feature phones, according to a report.
The New York Times reports that 20% of Motorola’s workforce amounts to 4,000 people, with one third of those based in the US. A third of Motorola’s 94 global offices will also be closed down.
Jobs will also be cut in also in Asia and India, while R&D spending cutbacks are also planned for Moto’s Chicago, Sunnyvale and Beijing centres, the report states.
Google is using the purchase of the handset maker to streamline both the Motorola workforce and the company’s device output, concentrating on fewer, high-quality phones.
According to the New York Times report, Google will also support Motorola’s plans “to leave unprofitable markets, stop making low-end devices and focus on a few cellphones instead of dozen”.
Speaking to the paper, Dennis Woodside, new Motorola CEO and Google sales-leader, added:”We’re excited about the smartphone business. The Google business is built on a wired model, and as the world moves to a pretty much completely wireless model over time, it’s really going to be important for Google to understand everything about the mobile consumer.”
Looking to make Motorola’s products “cool again”, the two companies are working together to research features like “sensors that recognise who is in a room based on their voices, cameras that take crisper photos and batteries that last for days.”
Read the NYT report here
