There's talk that Google may repeat the DoubleClick carnage once it acquires Motorola Mobility.
Now that China has approved Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, there's talk that layoffs will take place once the transaction is completed. That may happen soon, as an 8-K form filed by Motorola Mobility on Monday states that the deal will close in the next two business days.
According to an unnamed source, a "listening tour" will take place immediately after the acquisition. This will consist of new management visiting the whole of the operation to see what everyone does. The team will then determine what needs to be done next.
This is where the layoffs come into play: management is expected to reduce the headcount in the immediate future. Despite anything Google plans to do, Motorola Mobility already went through the motions of restructuring prior to its 8-K filing, subtracting 800 from its total headcount of around 19,000 employees as of October 2011 -- a move supposedly not related to the Google acquisition.
So far it's unknown who will be heading the Motorola Mobility arm. Back in February, Google assigned Dennis Woodside the task of overseeing the acquisition, and now there's rumor that he'll actually take control of the new division once the deal closes. Other sources claim that Nikesh Arora, Google’s Chief Business Officer, will head the operation instead.
Over the weekend, Chinese regulators gave the green light for Google to acquire Motorola Mobility. But there is one requirement: that Google keep its Android mobile OS free to use for the next five years. To prevent any sign of preference for Motorola, Google will supposedly offer early access to Android 5.0 "Jelly Bean" to numerous mobile manufacturers.
There's speculation that Google may not be able to layoff Motorola Mobility workers due to China's requirement. Google is definitely no stranger to layoffs after an important purchase: the company canned 300 DoubleClick employees after it acquired the online-advertising company back in 2008.
"As with many mergers, this review has resulted in a reduction in headcount at the acquired company," Google said in a statement at the time. "Today, we are laying off some DoubleClick employees in the U.S. and placing others in transitional roles."
Both Google and Motorola Mobility have declined to comment.
they can always hire more workers if there is demand.
Why are people getting mad about this? If I purchased a company and there were employees there that I felt weren't worth the money I was paying them, I would lay them off too... it makes perfect business sense.
I have a dream... a dream that one day, all users with Moto and Samsung phones will be able to join hands together, and reflash their phones as brothers to the latest build of AOSP. And with their phones held high, and joy in their hearts, they can proclaim, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank you, Larry & Sergey, we are free at last!"