Stefan Mileschin

Motorola Mobility is about to shed another 1,200 jobs, after its corporate overlords over at Google figured out that the outfit is not returning to profitability.

The cuts are rather sizable, as they represent about 10 per cent of the workforce and come on top of 4,000 redundancies announced last August, Reuters reports.

The move is not surprising, but the fact that Google’s takeover of Motorola Mobility has resulted in more than 5,000 layoffs is. Many punters expected Google to transform Motorola Mobility into an Android juggernaut, but Google’s policy of keeping a virtual firewall between itself and Moto is still in place.

A company spokesperson told Reuters that the latest round of cuts is just a continuation of reductions announced last summer. The cuts will affect operations in the US, China and India. Google apparently wants to cut operating costs before it expands Motorola Mobility, but it is still unclear when it will do anything with Motorola.

Google picked up Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion last year and the goal of the acquisition was to get a hold of Moto’s mobile patents and steer clear of legal challenges. Google never tapped Motorola to build Nexus phones or tablets, but Motorola is apparently working on an Android flagship under a different brand. Motorola’s X-Phone is expected to launch in a few months, but details are still sketchy.

An aggressive hardware push on Google’s part might irk other Android partners. Google’s relationship with Samsung has already soured, so it can ill afford another family feud.

http://news.techeye.net/business/mot...lash-1200-jobs