Friday, March 29, 2024

Lenovo lays off hundreds of Motorola employees

Share

lenovo-motorola-mwc15.jpg?itok=ZfG0wSME

Over 95% of Motorola’s workforce has departed the company in the last four years.

Lenovo has announced a new round of layoffs. Globally, the layoffs impact “less than 2 percent of its 55,000 employees,” with a majority of the job cuts targeted at Motorola employees in the U.S. According to Droid-Life, over 50% of Motorola’s workforce in the U.S. is being let go, affecting over 700 jobs out of the remaining 1,200. That’s a reduction of over 95% from the 20,000 employees Motorola had when Google acquired the company in 2011.

This isn’t the first re-organization conducted by Lenovo this year. Back in March, the Chinese company announced that it would split the mobile phone division across two business groups. That transition led to Rick Osterloh leaving the company and heading back to Google. In June, Motorola’s lead designer Jim Wicks departed after 15 years with the company.

Lenovo has confirmed that it will continue to operate Motorola out of its Chicago headquarters. The Chinese vendor has had difficulties integrating Motorola’s products in its portfolio. This year’s Moto G4 is racking up decent sales figures, but it doesn’t stand out as much as its predecessors. As for the Moto Z and Moto Z Force, they’re yet to make their global debut, four months after the official unveil.

Here’s Lenovo’s statement in its entirety:

Lenovo today announced a resource action impacting less than two percent of its approximately 55,000 employees globally. The majority of the positions being eliminated are part of the ongoing strategic integration between Lenovo and its Motorola smartphone business as the company further aligns its organization and streamlines its product portfolio to best compete in the global smartphone market.

The company is also making adjustments in other areas of the business as part of a continued effort to manage costs, drive efficiency and support ongoing improvement in overall financial performance. While these actions are never easy, they are a necessary part of our continued efforts to ensure long-term, profitable growth across all of our businesses.

Lenovo is absolutely committed to Chicago and we plan to maintain our Motorola Mobility headquarters there. Chicago has a well-deserved reputation for technical excellence and as the hub of our global R&D for our smartphone business we expect to take advantage of local talent to continue developing Moto products there.

Read more

More News