Motorola lays off handset makers

(Telephony) Motorola announced plans to lay off 2500 employees from its handset manufacturing facility in Harvard, Ill.

The move comes less than a week after the company reported fourth quarter results that fell below those of previous years. For the quarter ending December 31, the company posted earning of $335 million, or $0.15 per share, down 41% from the same quarter of 1999.

According to a company spokeswoman, the layoffs, then, are part of a move to improve efficiencies in Motorola’s supply chain.

“This is all part of a big business strategy to streamline our production, to cut costs so we can be more competitive in the kind of environment we have today,” she said.

The production of these handsets will move to lower-cost manufacturing sites, located in Brazil, China, Mexico and throughout Europe.

The layoffs, which should be completed by the end of June, will leave the Harvard campus with approximately 2500 employees. The facility’s focus will then shift to customer order fulfillment and new product sourcing.

This is the second major change the company has made it handset production in the past six weeks. In December, Motorola announced that it would increase its dependence on outsourcing for handset production and sold two manufacturing facilities, a move that cost about 2870 jobs in Florida, Iowa and Dublin, Ireland.