Motorola cutting 30 percent workforce in China

Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility will be cutting 30 percent of its workforce in China with research and development (R&D), and sales and marketing departments affected the most, says local report.

Citing unnamed sources from Motorola Mobility China, Sohu IT reported Thursday that employees were told of layoffs on Tuesday and nearly all of the departments were affected.

The report noted that more than half of the sales and marketing unit were affected by the job cuts, and the Motorola Software Center in Nanjing and the design unit in China will be closed down. Production factories in Hangzhoui and Tianjin were said to be affected as well, it added.

Google announced on Sunday its plans for global job cuts for Motorola which will affect 20 percent of its workforce. According to Sohu IT, the handset maker has around 5,000 employees in China and more than 30 percent of them will be affected by the layoff.

The reactions from the employees were mixed, said Sohu IT. One employee told the news site that rumors of layoffs have circulated since Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility. He added that the job cuts were expected and many employees have been looking for a new job while waiting for their severance.

However, some employees were against the layoffs, the report said. At the Nanjing software center, about 100 workers held a banner saying, "Against Google's unlawful layoffs. Defend our Nanjing Motorola home".