Lenovo lays off more employees from Moto’s mobile phone division

Lenovo is letting go of more people as the company works towards streamlining its mobile phone business. While the technology company claims the new round of layoffs less than two percent of its approximately 55,000 employees, it has already let go of around 3,200 employees last year. The layoffs Lenovo says is “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.” At the same time, Lenovo says it still intends to keep the Motorola Mobility headquarters in Chicago, striking down speculation that they plan to move staff to North Carolina with Lenovo’s other offices.

Source: The Verge

More job cuts at Microsoft as it sheds its phone business

Just when you think there couldn’t anymore layoffs, Microsoft is restructuring further and cutting 2,850 more jobs. The company is in the middle of ridding itself of its Windows phone business and at this point they have shed almost all of its Nokia mobile phone business which they bought for US$7.2 billion back in 2014. Around 900 of the workers have already been informed of the layoff. This also comes on top of a 1,850 layoff back in May.

Instead of forcing people to use Windows phone, which the world hasn’t really taken to, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is making their technology more available on the more popular Android and iOS platforms.

Source: Recode

Intel's major restructuring effort will result in 12,000 layoffs

Intel has announced a major restructuring effort that will cost 12,000 jobs, or 11 per cent of its workforce to mid-2017. The news comes as the company's plans to "accelerate its evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices." The chipmaker is focusing on data centres and Internet of Things (IoT) as primary growth areas expected to offset the slowing PC market.

"Intel Corporation today announced a restructuring initiative to accelerate its evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices. Intel will intensify its focus in high-growth areas where it is positioned for long-term leadership, customer value and growth, while making the company more efficient and profitable," the company said in a statement.

Source: TechSpot.com

BlackBerry to let go of 200 jobs in Ontario and Florida

In an effort to trim costs, BlackBerry is letting go of 200 jobs in its hometown headquarters in Ontario and Florida. This new round of layoffs with affect 75 manufacturing jobs in Sunrise, Florida, according to a state government site. Meanwhile, it’s rumoured that a lot of the job cuts in Canada involve people who are working on the BB10 device software. Gary Klassen, one of the company’s longest-tenured employees and the inventor of the BBM messaging service, is also leaving the company with this latest rounded of cuts.

BlackBerry won’t divulge the percentage of its workforce that has been affected by this latest round of layoffs. The Canadian company is trying to turn its fortunes around by putting its focus in its enterprise software business. BlackBerry let go of around 200 staff members back in September. The employees who were laid off then worked on the design and hardware of BB10 devices. But a spokeswoman for BlackBerry assures its users that they will still release updates for its BB10 software.

Source: Reuters