Google to cut 1,200 Motorola Mobility jobs, including in India

Google Inc's Motorola Mobility hardware unit is laying off about 1,200 employees, around 10 per cent of its headcount in the US, China and India, the Wall Street Journal said in a report.

Staffers of Motorola Mobility, which is trying to return to profitability, were informed by the company via an email this week about the said layoffs.

The email reviewed by the Wall Street Journal said "while we're very optimistic about the new products in our pipeline, we still face challenges. ...our costs are too high, we're operating in markets where we're not competitive and we're losing money."

The layoffs will affect workers in the US, China and India, WSJ said.

The new cuts come on top of a 20 per cent reduction of Motorola's workforce that started last August, when it said it would lay off 4,000 employees. As of the end of 2012, Google said Motorola had 11,113 employees.

Google agreed to pay USD 12.5 billion for Motorola in a deal struck in mid-2011. Since the acquisition was completed, Motorola has continued to show operating losses as its
smartphone and tablet market share fell.

In the third quarter of 2012, it posted an operating loss of more than USD 500 million and a loss of more than USD 350 million in the fourth quarter, WSJ added.