Motorola Winds Down South Korean Operations
Motorola Winds Down South Korean Operations by UCStrategies Staff
Motorola Mobility, a smartphone maker owned by Google, announced this week that in an effort to cut costs it will be decreasing operations in South Korea next year.
A spokesperson with the company said: “On December 10th, we began communicating to staff in Korea our plans to close most of our operations in Korea, including our research and development and consumer mobile device marketing organization. The changes in Korea reflect our plans to consolidate our global R&D efforts to foster collaboration, and to focus more attention on markets where we are best positioned to compete effectively.”
Ten percent of Motorola's Korean R&D staff will be transferred to other locations, but there has been no note so far of how many jobs have been lost. The spokesperson added: “For other staff we will strive to make the transition as smooth as possible.”
Four months earlier, Google, the parent company of Motorola, also announced that 4,000 jobs (around (20 percent) would be lost. Google, who purchased Motorola in May, stated that two-thirds of cuts would be made in countries other than the U.S., and around 90 Motorola sites would be closed or strengthened. Cuts are essential, according to Google; the smartphone maker will be able to lower costs and make themselves more competitive in the market.
Google wrote: “These changes are designed to return Motorola's mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters.”
It was announced in October by Google, who filed an 8-K form, that job cuts would follow for Motorola. The number of job losses or jobs impacted were not specified, but the form did suggest that the scaling down would occur outside of the U.S. and around $90 million is expected to be lost in the Motorola restructuring process.
In the last year, Motorola has found it difficult to remain a strong competitor and Gartner, the research firm, stated that the company's third-quarter market share fell by 2 percent to 2.5 percent from where it was at the same time last year. Incumbent market players, Samsung and Nokia, who in contrast stood at 22.9 percent and 19.2 percent in the markets respectively, come after the 5.5 percent share of Google. (CY) Link