Google warns there may be more Motorola job cuts
At “significant” costs
Search engine Google has warned that it might have to cull more jobs at Motorola, which could entail significant costs.
In a filing with the SEC the company said that Motorola was evaluating its plans, which could lead to Google incurring additional restructuring charges, “some of which may be significant.”
It said this could include $300 million in severance-related charges, and $90 million in facility and market exit charges, most of which would appear on Google’s balance sheet for the the third quarter of this year.
In May Google, which bought the company for $12.5 billion, said it would be cutting 4,000 jobs with two thirds of those hit outside the US. While the deal made sense at the time because it provided Google with patents to see off attacks from other software and hardware companies, it did anger many of its suppliers who felt that Motorola would get advantages over them by being under the search engine’s umbrella.
At the time Google said that it planned to make the cuts through consolidating around a third of the company’s facilities and cutting the mobile product portfolio to simplify the range.
In August resellers hit out at the move, claiming that they could filter down to call centre staff and make it harder for them to sell in a smaller window of products.