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Google Will Cut 1,200 More Jobs At Motorola Mobility

Posted by Soulskill on from the cutting-deep-to-clean-house dept.

alphadogg writes "Motorola Mobility is cutting 1,200 staff, in addition to a reduction of 4,000 staff it announced in August, to focus on high-end devices. 'These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer,' said Motorola. 'It's obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition.' Motorola's mobile business has been overwhelmed in the smartphone market by larger players such as Samsung Electronics, Apple, Sony, Huawei Technologies and ZTE."

10 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. serves them right by iSterculius · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's what those workers deserved. I'm sure they were making more than some third world country worker would work for. They can all go out and start their own businesses.

    1. Re:serves them right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As a former Motorola employee, they actually did deserve it. I left the company because they were fulfilling the 80/20 Pareto principle. I was part of the 20% of people doing 80% of the work and not getting jack above the bare minimum to show for it. Google has been salivating at the thought of cutting loose all that extra dead weight and getting the batwings back into a lean, mean shape, but they just can't do it too fast.

    2. Re:serves them right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As a former Motorola employee, they actually did deserve it. I left the company because they were fulfilling the 80/20 Pareto principle. I was part of the 20% of people doing 80% of the work and not getting jack above the bare minimum to show for it. Google has been salivating at the thought of cutting loose all that extra dead weight and getting the batwings back into a lean, mean shape, but they just can't do it too fast.

      Posting anon... I have nothing to add except that 1) I worked in Motorola also, and 2) you are absolutely right on the money. Some companies are burdened by fat. Motorola, however, it is burdened by malignant growths.

      Actually, I have something to add: Outsiders and ex-Motorolans like to complain that it was the executive overlords, the always maligned pointy-haired bosses who screwed the company.

      WHAT. A. LOAD. OF. BULLSHIT.

      There were incompentent parasites across the board. The 80/20 Pareto principle the poster above mentioned was present everywhere. In marketing, in admin, in engineering. There were career-lifers there sucking the living juices out of it doing nothing. Young grads were hired to do menial work, never giving them a chance to acquire meaningful work experience (careers were destroyed in the process, so sad.)

      Can't wait to see the axe coming down soon enough. That's the only way to bring the company (or whatever is left of it) to turn around.

  2. Seriously.. by tech.kyle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Am I the only one that was hoping Google would take Motorola and do a complete 180 to start developing really awesome phones that aren't locked down? What are their plans for the company? I think Google is starting to turn evil, guys.

    --
    If we colonize Mars, it won't be the World Wide Web anymore. UWW?
    1. Re:Seriously.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I've worked in Motorola before it was split to Mobilty and Solutions. I have contacts there and had a good understanding of what was going on in Mobility. I'll bet Google had no idea the mess of a company they were buying. Mobility was a disaster, talent and culture-wise. If anything, Google probably hasn't gutted Mobility enough if they want to get something productive out of the purchase. There are some really good people there, but they were really opposed and held back by culture, management, and incompetent co-workers.

    2. Re:Seriously.. by mlts · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Devil's advocate:

      One of the reasons I am guessing that Google is being conservative with the Motorola division is the concern about being viewed as a monopoly. If Google does too much with MM, other Android makers (Samsung, Huawei, ZTE) will jump ship for other operating systems like Windows 8.

      There is also the fact that there is the fear of being viewed as a monopoly by the EU.

      Regardless, it would be nice if Motorola would do like what Sony, HTC, and others offer, and give a way to unlock the bootloader. I like Motorola phones, but I won't buy another one unless there is a way to do this.

  3. Re:Not Evil by ADRA · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No firings after an aquisition is like telling raging barbarians not to rape and murder. It just doesn't happen. Some companies will actually pump resources into its new appendage, but thats a lot more common when you acquire very young companies that couldn't self capitalize expansion.

    --
    Bye!
  4. Wake up Google by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You bought a cellphone manufacturer but then use other companies to make Nexus products, and those companies are unable to keep up with even the limited demand of the Nexus brand.

    Then you are carrying on your back's a company that has been unable to offer a compelling product since the original Droid phone (which turned out to be a dismal phone).

    How about axing Motorola and rebranding them as Nexus, period. Throw out anybody that made decision about Motorola phones for the last 10 years and hire some new innovative people to manage that division.

    Honestly, sometimes it just seems like Google doesn't now how to run themselves in spite of billions in profit. The are succeeding in spite of themselves.

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
  5. Re:Not Evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Google hadn't bought them, Motorola would have either been out of business or even smaller by now. They're not killing anybody, just asking people to find new jobs. That's tough, but it won't kill them.

    I don't see how getting a company into shape where they're not losing money is supposed to be "evil".

    Either we pull our weight in this world, or somebody else pulls it for us. Who is supposed to pull Motorola's weight?

  6. A few comments having worked there recently.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The handset segment of Motorola's business has suffered for nearly a decade with very lackluster management, and had an excellent engineering staff (all those innovations and patents didn't just magically appear). Each successive management team took more and more money out of the company, culminating with the largest exporter of cash, Dr. Sanjay Jha.
    Google. Under Dennis Woodside (an M&A lawyer, not a technologist), is not much different. In the last six months, they have let go the inventor of the most lucrative patent they have litigated against Apple, they have RIF'd their most prolific inventor, let go the design chief of the most popular and profitable smartphone design to date (not Jim Wicks, unfortunately). The Google CFO blames lackluster results on "an aging pipeline of products", and it takes "18 months to deliver new ones". Well, sorry folks.. it doesn't take 18 months, it takes 9...those products should be out by now...
    Google is managing this subsidiary like it's a internet software company, and then following the Apple-Samsung strategy of doing fewer designs (when apple and Samsung are now branching out, and doing more). The wrong HR strategy, the wrong market strategy, and the wrong outside management, it is no small wonder the remaining technology talent are leaving in droves. The only difference between MMI and the Titanic? The Titanic, at least, had a band.