Google To Slash 4000 Jobs

Google announced on August 13, 2012 that it would cut about 4,000 jobs at its Motorola Mobility unit — roughly 20 percent of the handset maker's workforce — in the search giant's first major restructuring since acquiring the company.

The cuts were deep and global: about two-thirds of the layoffs would be outside the United States, and Google said it planned to close or consolidate about one-third of Motorola Mobility's 94 facilities worldwide.

The move came just three months after Google completed its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility — a deal driven largely by the handset maker's trove of mobile patents, which Google wanted as ammunition in the smartphone patent wars.

"We are committed to helping them through this difficult transition and will be providing generous severance packages, as well as outplacement services to help people find new jobs," Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside said in a statement. Woodside, a Google veteran installed to run the unit, said Motorola would shift its strategy away from making dozens of low-end phones to building a smaller number of premium devices.

Google warned the cuts would cost about $275 million in severance-related charges, most of it in the third quarter of 2012.

The announcement was a stark reminder that even Google — the industry's most famous acquirer — was not immune to the brutal economics of the mobile hardware business, where Motorola had been losing money for years.

A source link could not be verified during editorial review; key facts above were cross-checked against contemporary wire and press reporting of the August 2012 announcement.