Google cutting another 1,200 Motorola jobs

10% of the Motorola workforce will be out of work, over 5K jobs lost since being purchased by Google

(Updated to reflect comment from Motorola)

Since completing its purchase of Motorola in May 2012, Google has been streamlining the company to return it to profitability. And that has meant the loss of a large amount of the smartphone manufacturer’s workforce, numbering in the thousands.

Google has decided to cut another 1,200 jobs, or over 10% of the workforce, from its Motorola Mobility unit, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday. Motorola staffers were informed by the company via e-mail this week.

“These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer,” a Motorola spokesperson told VatorNews. “It’s obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition.”

This is not the first time Motorola has been forced to lay off workers. In October 2011, the company announced it would be laying off 800 workers after a disappointing quarterly report, despite half of its loses being attributed to the Google acquisition.

Then, in August 2012, Google announced that it would be making a major reduction in Motorola's workforce, eliminating 4,000 jobs, or a total of 20% of the company's workers. In addition, Motorola would be closing or consolidating roughly one-third of its 90 facilities, while also shifting its focus away from feature phones.

Google first announced its purchase of Motorola in August 2011 for $12.5 billion, its largest acquisition ever, as a way to for Google to strengthen the company’s patent portfolio. The deal resulted in Google gaining more than 17,000 new patents.

“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies,” Google CEO Larry Page wrote on the company’s blog at the time.

Google is having a good 2013 so far, as tts stock has been on the rise since it reported better than expected earnings in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The company took in $14.42 billion last quarter, up 36% from the same quarter last year. Google reported on Motorola Home as a separate line item, however, and had it been included, Google’s revenue would have been $15.24 billion for the fourth quarter.

Since the release of these numbers on January 22, Google's shares have risen a total of $132.43.

The stock is up .39% in pre-market trading, to $835.83 a share, up 18% on the year.

(Image source: https://www.mobileteleco.com)