By David Meyer, 31 May 2007 17:05
NEWS
Motorola is to shed a further 4,000 employees in its quest to cut costs.
The handset and network-equipment manufacturer claims the reduction in head count in 2008 will help shave $600m off its annual operating costs.
The company is already on course to have cut 3,500 jobs by the end of June as part of a structural review which was announced after its Q1 results this year. Motorola said at the time the review would save it $400m per year.
Tom Meredith, Motorola's chief financial officer, said: "Long-term, sustainable profitability is - and always has been - Motorola's top priority. We are confident that the steps we are announcing today, together with the actions that we have outlined previously, will further improve the company's financial and operational performance and create value for our stockholders."
Greg Brown, the company's president and chief operating officer, promised the cost reductions would have no adverse effect on Motorola's customer service and support, product quality or "those research and development programmes that are expected to contribute meaningfully to Motorola's revenues, profits and cash flow in 2008 and beyond".
There is, as yet, no word on how many jobs could go in Motorola's UK operations, or in which divisions of the company they will go.
Martin Garner, an analyst at Ovum, said the move revealed the seriousness of Motorola's portfolio problems. "This move strengthens our view that Motorola's handset product problems are deeper than was clear at the end of Q1," he said. "It is clear that Motorola has known for over six months that its handset product portfolio is in trouble but, apart from cutting costs, there is little evidence so far of steps to fix this."
Garner suggested "a broad-based overhaul" of all segments of Motorola's product portfolio might be necessary to put its business back on track.
David Meyer writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
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1. anonymous
"Tom Meredith, Motorola's chief financial officer, said: "Long-term, sustainable profitability is - and always has been - Motorola's top priority."
Sod the customers then!!!
2. Karen Challinor
well hey thats lucky
there just happens to be a skills shortage at the moment
well so people are telling me
so these 4000 highly qualified hardworking people are just going to walk into the jobs offered by those with the skills shortage aren't they
so thats all right then, no worries there
what's that I hear ? they aren't ?
some are too old, some have the wrong skills, some are too young and have no interpersonal skills in office situations
so they are going on the scrapheap while while the skills shortage is filled by offshoring
so is paying a job seekers allowance via tax plus the cost of hiring a foreign worker in a foreign country actually cheaper than hiring that same job seeker and paying them a lliving wage then ?
I'd like to see the figure on that
it's a little like the ecology people keep saying "there is no away", these people still live here and the state has to support them which ultimately means the company they used to work for still pays something towards their allowance unless they are lucky enough to find another job
so just because they aren't on the payroll does not mean you aren't paying them