Motorola Mobility to sack 800 ahead of Google gobble

No in-office laundry or massages for you

Motorola Mobility Holdings is firing some 800 staff ahead of being swallowed by search engine supertanker Google.

The $12.5bn bid for the maker of mobile phones and set-top devices was tabled by Google in August and the deal is expected to close by the end of this year or early next – subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

In an SEC filing late on Friday, Motorola Mobility outlined the "workforce reduction action".

As part of the cost-cutting efforts, Motorola is rolling some 800 heads and will take a $31m restructuring on the nose in Q4 ended 1 January 2012, including $27m of severance costs and $4m facility exit costs.

"Both of the Company’s business segments (the Mobile Devices business and the Home business), as well as various corporate functions, are impacted by the action and the action affects employees globally," stated Motorola in the filing.

In results for the third quarter ended 1 October, Motorola Mobility made a net loss of $32m, a slight improvement on the $34m losses it posted a year earlier, on the back of sales of $3.26bn, a year-on-year rise of 10.5 per cent. ®