Less than two months after announcing its plans to slash 4,000 jobs from its Motorola Mobility business unit, Google has warned that a more drastic workforce reduction is planned for the struggling smartphone marker.
Google, in an 8-K filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, suggested additional Motorola layoffs are coming down the pike, with job cuts primarily taking place outside the U.S.
"Google Inc. (Google) expects to incur certain charges in connection with planned restructuring actions at its wholly-owned subsidiary Motorola Mobility (Motorola)," the filing said. "Motorola has continued to refine its planned restructuring actions and now expects to broaden those actions to include additional geographic regions outside of the U.S."
[Related: Motorola Stages First Major Smartphone Launch As A Google Company]
The Internet search giant said it expects to take a third-quarter charge of $300 million because of increased employee severance packages, a jump from the original $275 million it projected when it first announced the layoffs in August.
In addition, Google said it expects to take a $90 million hit for broader restructuring charges over the course of the next year, $40 million of which will be seen in the third quarter.
In August, Google said in a separate filing with the SEC that all layoffs made within its Motorola Mobility unit were intended specifically to revive the handset maker's mobile device unit, which has been dwindling steadily for the past three years.
"These changes are designed to return Motorola's mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters," Google wrote in the August filing. "That said, investors should expect to see significant revenue variability for Motorola for several quarters."
Google acquired Motorola Mobility in May for $12.5 billion in a bid to grow its mobile hardware business and go head-to-head with smartphone leaders Apple, Samsung and Nokia. But Motorola has struggled to compete, with Gartner pegging the company's second-quarter worldwide market share at 2.2 percent, down from the 2.4 percent it held during the same quarter in 2011.
According to Gartner, Samsung led the pack during the second quarter with 21.6 percent, followed by Nokia with 19.9 percent, and then Apple with 6.9 percent.
PUBLISHED OCT. 4, 2012
