Motorola cuts 150 jobs from R&D
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- 6/13/2008
Motorola Inc will cut another 150 jobs worldwide as it continues to reorganize its troubled company, Electronic News has confirmed.
The layoffs will hit Motorola Labs, the company’s research and development group, and are affective July 1.
“As part of the company’s strategic review of business operations, Motorola is moving some Motorola Labs project groups into the businesses they support. This direct alignment will help R&D teams work with their business partners to optimize R&D investment and focus on projects that deliver the greatest value for Motorola,” a company spokeswoman said.
According to the spokeswoman, the reorganization will see some R&D projects discontinued and further impacts approximately 180 employees, which will be transferred to Motorola’s mobile devices, home and networks mobility, and government and public safety businesses. In doing so, the remaining approximately 300 Motorola Labs employees will comprise the company’s central applied research and technology center organization, focused on longer-term technologies and solutions, the spokeswoman said.
The moves come after Motorola announced it would spin off its mobile devices unit and saw its total company layoffs since the beginning of 2007 exceeded the 10,000 mark in April.
The moves also come as new management continues to settle in at the Schaumburg, Ill-based company. Current CEO Greg Brown took the seat in January after Ed Zander announced his resignation late last year. Zander’s exit announcement was quickly followed by news that Padmasree Warrior, a top tech mind at Motorola who is largely credited for the company’s Razr success, had left for Cisco. Motorola has also sourced new product and financial group executives from the private equity world in recent months. And the company in April further appointed several senior mobile division managers in an effort to give managers more control over all aspects of products under development in the failing unit.
“We’re currently assessing opportunities for eligible [the 150 cut] employees to apply for other positions within Motorola. Motorola very much appreciates the contributions of the affected employees to Motorola’s past successes and regrets the need to take such actions,” the spokeswoman said.
© 2009, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.