Motorola to shut down phone plant at Chennai plant in February 2013, to cut 76 jobs

Telecom Lead India: Motorola Mobility has decided to suspend operations at its phone assembling plant in Chennai from February 2013.

Motorola Mobility, a part of Google, invested Rs 172 crore in Chennai.

The decision will negatively impact 76 jobs. Google expects to incur a severance-related charge of no greater than $ 275 million globally.

This is as part of its global cost reduction plan, Hindu BusinessLine reported. The decision to indefinitely suspend operations at the Chennai facility has been done to streamline the supply chain of the company globally.

The Chennai facility was a customer fulfillment center undertaking finishing, packaging and software installation.

“The decision to close down the Chennai facility has been done to streamline the supply chain of the company globally. This means that we are now fulfilling customer orders directly from factories, and we have no current or forecast production requirements that would require the continued use of our Chennai facility,” said William Moss, Motorola Mobility’s Director for Communications in Asia Pacific.

Motorola Mobility’s Research & Development operations in Bangalore and other corporate functions in India will continue.

Recently, Motorola Mobility announced its plans to close down its unit in South Korea eliminating an estimated 500 jobs

The company has also sold its manufacturing facility in China to Flextronics.

On August 3, 2012, Motorola Mobility announced that it would reduce its headcount by approximately 4,000 out of a total of about 20,000 employees. Two-thirds of the reduction is set to occur outside of the U.S. In addition, Motorola plans to close or consolidate about one-third of its 90 facilities, as well as simplify its mobile product portfolio-shifting the emphasis from feature phones to more innovative and profitable devices.

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