Motorola Mobility to exit South Korea next year

Motorola Mobility will be closing down almost all of its operations in South Korea next year, confirms a report by The Next Web. The decision comes as the Google-owned company continues to undergo reorganisation. According to details known at the moment, the company will retain 10 percent of its local R&D staff – they will be given relocation packages. While two of its business units will stay, the company will altogether stop selling and marketing mobile devices. The report goes on to elaborate that the company is currently undergoing a reshuffle – a move that has seen roughly 4,000 employees go jobless. The Google-owned company had even shut down most of its international websites recently. 

Motorola shutting shop in South Korea

In August this year, it was announced that Motorola will axe 20 percent of its global work force and shut almost a third of its offices across the world. Few days later, the Google-acquired brand shut down its operations in India. At the time, reports stated that the Motorola management will also do away with about 40 percent of its Vice Presidents. According to reports, the job cuts may set Google back by $275 million in severance-related charges. As per a report by The New York Times, the move is one of the first steps by Google in its bid to reinvent loss-making Motorola and augment the Android platform, and expand beyond just search and software into hardware manufacturing. Reportedly, the mobile manufacturer has lost $233 million in its first six weeks under Google.

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Late last month, the company shut down its website, marking the end of its India operations. If one happens to mosey over to the Motorola website and tries to enter it, one is greeted with the text, “Important message to our customers in India”. The message reads, “We are streamlining our business and support systems, and unfortunately, we’ll no longer have a dedicated website for India. Your local support site will remain open well into the future, and we’ll continue to provide support for our existing products. If you are interested in viewing our current products, you can still do so here.”

This shows that Motorola’s affair with India has come to a close, and in all likelihood, we may not see any new products from the brand in India. This will come as some horrible news to those who have been followers of the brand and have opted for its handsets.

Confirming in a statement to The Next Web, the company revealed, “On December 10th, we began communicating to staff in Korea our plans to close most of our operations in Korea, including our research and development and consumer mobile device marketing organization. The changes in Korea reflect our plans to consolidate our global R&D efforts to foster collaboration, and to focus more attention on markets where we are best positioned to compete effectively.

Our Home business and iDEN go-to-market operations will continue operating in Korea. We will also continue to provide customer service and warranty support for mobile devices that have been sold in Korea.”