Motorola is going to be leaving South Korea next year as part of the reorganization that has been happening within the company since Google purchased them. Only about 10% of Motorola’s employees from the local research and development department will remain with the company. Those that do will be offered relocation packages.
Unfortunately, this restructuring will claim over 500 jobs in South Korea. In all, about 4000 people have been laid off since Google purchased Motorola, and it looks like this situation is going to add to that total. Only Motorola Mobility is leaving South Korea, as the Home Business and iDEN go-to-market will remain and presumably, those jobs will not be affected, at least for now.
Motorola Mobility began notifying employees today that it will cease operating in South Korea. While we know the job loss will be somewhere over 500, Motorola declined to provide an exact number of people who would lose their jobs. Motorola did note that the 10% that will remain active is only R&D staff, but that does not tell us much, as most of the staff consists of R&D.
Motorola Mobility says that closing operations in South Korea are a part of its ongoing effort to consolidate its research and development operations. Motorola is also hoping the move will help it compete in markets where it can be most effective. It’s just unfortunate that this move comes at the cost of many individual jobs.
[via Slashgear]
How sad. We could all use more jobs, not less.
Is Motorola leaving South Korea or just dying? They’re lying about their product capabilities, providing no support for damages when their devices do not meet specifications (e.g. IP67 standard) and OS of their devices are among the oldest in the world. They used to create nice phones, but they’re slowly leaving the market. Be careful if you’re considering to buy a Motorola mobile phone and you expect some support for it..