Motorola may cut as much as half of the jobs in its handset division as early as this week, as the struggling mobile devices division continues to falter, according to a report in Phone Scoop.
The company's other divisions, including home and networks and enterprise devices, will not be affected by the layoffs, according to the report. The company also plans on pulling out of the CTIA trade show in April and on trimming the number of devices it brings to market down to about a dozen per year. The only smartphones the company will release will be based on Google's Android platform.
If it comes to pass, the move would be a major one for the company, which has said it will not spin off the handset division, and would add to the uncertainty of the division's future. When the handset maker reported its third quarter earnings and posted a $397 million loss, it cut 3,000 jobs.
Co-CEO Sanjay Jha, the head of Motorola's mobile devices business, said at the time of the earnings report that the company would focus on Android and Windows Mobile-based handsets. In December, Motorola said it would freeze U.S. pension plans, stop matching company 401(k) contributions, halt most salary increases for 2009 and cut executive pay.
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