SINGAPORE, 19 JANUARY 2009 - Telecommunications company Motorola says it has not ‘broken down’ the announced 4,000 redundancies to determine the precise number of jobs that will be lost in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Last week, Motorola announced that the 4,000 jobs would go, primarily associated with the company’s mobile devices business, in cost cutting that would save an estimated US$700 million in 2009.
Last Wednesday’s (January 14) announcement said the layoffs would being immediately and Singapore media reports indicate that ‘town hall meetings’ have already taken place in the Lion City to outline the cuts to employees.
In response to questions from MIS Asia about precise job cuts for SE Asia, a Motorola spokesperson said: “We have not broken down the workforce reductions by office location/region/business. The announced cost-reduction actions will include workforce reductions of approximately 4,000 positions worldwide, with about 3,000 coming from Mobile Devices and about 1,000 coming primarily from corporate functions, and to a lesser extent, from the other business units.”
Asia Pacific Headquarters in Singapore
In 1993, the Singapore Government awarded Motorola Singapore Operational Headquarters status, making it the centre that co-ordinates and supports its regional subsidiaries in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to the company website, today, Motorola Singapore's presence include high-end manufacturing; research and development; software design; marketing; sales and distribution; and various corporate functions such as human resources, legal and IP management, training & development, information technology, treasury and finance.
Since its set-up in 1984, Motorola’s Singapore Design Center is now the Global Center of Excellence for mass-market GSM and 3G phones and focuses solely on the design and development of mobile phones.
“The actions we are taking in our Mobile Devices business will allow us to further reduce our cost structure and positions us for improved financial performance in 2009,” said Sanjay Jha, co-chief executive officer of Motorola in last week’s announcement. “Together with these actions and the announcements made in the fourth quarter, the Mobile Devices business expects to recognize annual cost savings of approximately $1.2 billion in 2009.”
“Additionally, we are making good progress in developing important new smartphones for 2009 and are pleased with the positive response from our customers to these new devices” added Jha.
