Motorola Mobility Slashes 800 Jobs Ahead of Google Buy

As Motorola Mobility gears up for a complete acquisition by Google, it’s undergoing a few housekeeping measures. Sadly, that includes putting 800 jobs on the chopping block. Here’s the rundown on the future of Motorola Mobility, and Google’s new mobility arm …

A tip of the hat goes to Bloomberg Businessweek for reporting on the layoffs. According to the report:

Bloomberg also reported Motorola Mobility is “improving its financial performance by taking actions to manage the company’s cost,” which are allegedly unrelated to the Google acquisition, despite Motorola closing down facilities in conjunction with the layoffs.

Realistically, I think it’s all related, and the layoffs serve a few different purposes. Managing costs and headcount makes Motorola Mobility look good on paper, while simultaneously paving the way for new Google employees to be put into play. Maybe not 800, but certainly enough. And it’s all for building new phones. I’ve had a hunch that this was Google’s real plan for a while, despite the subterfuge of crowd-sourcing patents for Android court battles. Even Bloomberg reported the acquisition is to “access to mobile patents and [to] move into the hardware business.”

Currently, Motorola is churning out the Xoom 2 and the Droid RAZR, but I maintain my conviction that these devices are the end of Motorola’s current product roadmap. Sometime next year, I suspect the Motorola brand to be synonymous with Google.