Motorola Solutions has laid off 175 employees in its networks business, which is slated to be sold to Nokia Siemens Networks in a $1.2 billion deal.
Motorola Solutions spokeswoman Tama McWhinney said the cuts took place in January and affected workers in Arlington Heights, as well as Fort Worth, Texas, and Tempe, Ariz. The company maintains a presence in all three cities.
The layoffs represent the first job cuts since Motorola Inc. split into two companies at the beginning of the year. Motorola Solutions focuses on communications equipment and software for public safety and industrial customers, while Motorola Mobility makes consumer mobile devices and TV set-top boxes.
McWhinney said the cuts were exclusive to Motorola’s WiMax business, which has not seen as much activity as the company anticipated. WiMAX is a fourth-generation wireless network technology that competes with another technology called Long-Term Evolution, or LTE. In the U.S., Verizon Wireless and AT&T use LTE, while Sprint uses a WiMAX network built by Clearwire.
Motorola’s deal with Nokia Siemens Networks, announced in July, is being delayed pending regulatory approval from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau. McWhinney said the cuts are unrelated to the delay, though they will slightly reduce the number of employees expected to join Nokia Siemens Networks after the deal closes. The companies had said about 7,500 Motorola employees would go to the European firm.
Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks are targeting early 2011 to complete the deal.
The deal faces another setback in the form of pending litigation by Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies, which sued Motorola last month to prevent the deal, saying it would represent a misappropriation of trade secrets between Motorola and Huawei. Last month, a federal judge entered a temporary restraining order that bars Motorola from disclosing confidential Huawei information to Nokia Siemens Networks. The two are due back in court Friday to argue whether that ban should be extended.
wawong@tribune.com
First job cuts since the split? What?
There were significant cuts the day after the official split! Where do you get your information?