Google swinging axe, cutting its Motorola workforce by 10 percent | Hacker News Reader

Google swinging axe, cutting its Motorola workforce by 10 percent

arstechnica.com

25 pointsboh10 comments

Google never liked the idea of buying company for patents. They always said that the money would be better spent on engineering. Unfortunately the patent war is something no one can escape from.

From the article: "seems to reinforce Google's intent when acquiring Motorola in the first place: It's not the people or the products, it's the patents." ... "Along with this round of layoffs, Google is expected to further pare down its Motorola division by selling off its set-top business, which employs an additional 7,000 people."

But "don't be evil"...

If Google wanted just the patents, why didn't they just shut the entire Libertyville campus down? Why did they just lease half a million square feet in downtown Chicago?

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/article/20121106/CRED0...

I used to work at Motorola in India. It seemed like I had around 10 layers of management above me just to reach the India head. I think this is a good move by Google and will only serve to make the company more efficient.

I take you were in BTP. We were the neighbours and competitors then and I can't agree more :-)

Used to hear stories during after lunch walks.

@OC: But I do not agree that Google pays those dollars only and only for their patents. If that was the case then I do not think Google is a company that would let Moto bleed before fully closing it. It would rather shut it down in one go - keeping people it wants to retain. They are going to use that good 'ol factory. And as the soupboy said, they are just shaking the belly fat off.

Killing failing businesses is evil because...

Because buying a company and shut it down for strategy purposes is exactly why people were so mad of Microsoft on 90's.

One has the hope that when a failing business is acquired the new owner will try to rescue it.

Seems well beyond what any reasonable person would call evil. You require a company to save a business to not be evil? Even if saving the business is impossible or a resource suck?

People had problems with Microsoft buying companies to merely shut down competition, not cause they bought companies and didn't save them. It is hard to believe the Motorola purchase was to crowd out a competitor.

That's what they're trying to do here - they're trying to push out the product pipeline they inherited from Motorola, cutting their losses, and preparing for a more "unified" future with fewer, but better devices (nexii?)

> Because buying a company and shut it down for strategy purposes is exactly why people were so mad of Microsoft on 90's.

Straw man. Microsoft bought companies and shut them down to eliminate competition. That is evil. It also strategic, but it doesn't make any "acquisition to shut down for strategic purposes" evil.

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