Google lets go of 4,000 Motorola Mobility employees

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

In an effort to curtail Motorola's Mobility's declining sales, Google has let go of 4,000 employees of Motorola Mobility, the company it acquired for $1.5 billion last year in order to secure valuable patents that would aid the search giant in its efforts to dominate the mobile smartphone and tablet market.

The 4,000 employees constitute around 20 per cent of Motorola Mobility's global workforce. Last October, Motorola Mobility let go of 800 people in preparation to the acquisition by Google. Those job cuts cost around $27 million in severance as well as $4 million for factory closures.

For this series of layoffs, Google will pay up to $275 million in severance.

“These changes are designed to return Motorola’s mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters,” Google said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“While lower expenses are likely to lag the immediate negative impact to revenue, Google sees these actions as a key step for Motorola to achieve sustainable profitability.”

Google added that it is committed to "providing generous severance packages, as well as outplacement services to help people find new jobs," in a statement  released to the SEC.

Motorola Mobility has 94 offices throughout the world, most of the cuts are said to be focused in the US.