The rumored Motorola layoffs have been confirmed. Motorola will cut an additional 4, 000 jobs in 2009, after announcing cuts of 3, 000 last year. Shedding 4, 000 employees will save the cellphone manufacturer $700 million in 2009, and combined with the previous cuts, savings will reach $1.5 billion annually. The New York Times reports that the majority of the layoffs will be in Motorola’s mobile division, while roughly 1, 000 jobs are tied to corporate and other business units.
With the massive cuts in mobile, a little extra credibility is lend to another rumor that Motorola will focus exclusively on Android-based handsets in 2009. In early 2008, the company’s mobile division was severely fragmented, using 7 different operating systems on numerous phones.
