Motorola likely to pull out of India

 Motorola Mobility may shut down its business in India as part of the massive global restructuring that the company has planned. BGR India, a technology blog, reported the company didn't plan to bring additional stock of its phones and had put up an R&D center in Hyderabad for sale.

When contacted William Moss, director of communications for Asia-Pacific at Motorola, confirmed the restructuring plan. However, he stopped short of saying the company would no longer do business in India.

"Motorola Mobility is reducing its headcount by approximately 4,000 globally, and two-thirds of this reduction will occur outside US. We also plan to close or consolidate about one-third of our 90 facilities globally," he told TOI in an email. "India is affected by this global restructuring, but we do continue to have substantial operations there."

Moss added the restructuring plan is bound to lead to job cuts in the affected countries. "We understand how hard these changes will be for the employees concerned. We are committed to helping them through this difficult transition and will be providing generous severance packages, as well as outplacement services to help people find new jobs," he said.

Motorola Mobility, which has fallen behind Apple and Samsung in the crucial smartphone market, was bought by Google last year for around $12.5 billion. The deal was completed this year and a restructuring of the company and its operations was expected. As soon as the deal completed in May this year, Google replaced Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha with Dennis Woodside, a Google executive, who played a key role in events leading to the closure of the deal.

Moss said the company would now focus on fewer phones and simplify its business. "We will simplify our mobile product portfolio -- shifting the emphasis from feature phones to more innovative and profitable devices. We expect this strategy to create new opportunities and help return our mobile devices unit to profitability," he said.