Motorola Mobility cutting 500 jobs in Chicago as part of bigger Lenovo cuts

Yesterday Lenovo reported they were cutting 3,200 jobs from their workforce as part of a cost-cutting measure after poor financial results. The cuts are across all parts of the business and as we learn today, a big chunk will be coming from the Motorola Mobility unit based in Chicago. Motorola will be cutting 500 positions, which is approximately 25% of the workforce located in Chicago, as part of this latest move.

Motorola spokesperson Will Moss says the company “will maintain a substantial employee base there, as well as our labs and design facilities.” Motorola moved to the Merchandise Mart last year from their former headquarters in Libertyville. With this downsizing move, Motorola may end up relinquishing some of their space in the Merchandise Mart. They current have 600,000 square feet of space on four floors of what is their largest location. Moss says the Merchandise Mart will continue “to be our headquarters and will still be the hub for global R&D.”

When Lenovo purchased Motorola from Google, the company employed a total of 3,500 staff. However, Motorola’s phone shipments dropped by 31 percent compared to last year. Despite this downturn, Lenovo noted that they are still looking for Motorola to “design, develop and manufacture smartphone products” and may be relying on them even more heavily to do so.

source: Chicago Business

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