Motorola axes another 9,400 jobs

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Motorola is cutting another 9,400 jobs over the next 12 months in a desperate effort to bring profit in line with stock market expectations for 2002. The announcement followed the company's acknowledgement that targets for the fourth quarter of 2001 were on track and that it would probably hit Wall Street predications for 2002, of 15 cents profit per share. Around 4,100 staff have already been told they are losing their jobs. Another 4,000 will be cut from the company's struggling semiconductor unit to aid the readjustment of its business model. Equipment manufacturing operations will make up the remaining 1,300 job losses. Motorola will make another 5,500 people jobless through asset sales, bringing the total over two and a half years to a massive 42,900 or over 28 per cent of its workforce. The company added that the first quarter of 2002 would mean heavy losses in share value of 11 to 14 cents each.