MORRISVILLE – Lenovo is laying off some members of its Motorola smartphone workforce in Chicago. However, the global tech conglomerate denies the layoffs affect as much as half the group.
The layoffs are part of layoffs Lenovo announced late last year, the company said in a statement provided to 9TO5Google.
Earlier, that news site and others had reported that cuts were being made and that its Moto Z line of phones was at risk.
“Motorola Mobility (Lenovo) just tapped 50% of their Chicago workforce on the shoulder to let them know they are being laid off. Their expected last day of work is April 6, 2018. Sad… and to think this was my dream job getting out of college,” said a post at TheLayoff.com.
The statement in response from Lenovo:
“In late 2017, Lenovo announced a worldwide resource action that would occur over the next several quarters, and impacting less than two percent of its global workforce. This week’s employment reductions are a continuation of that process. We are reducing our Motorola operations in Chicago however this did not impact half of our workforce there and our Moto Z family will continue.”
Lenovo has gone through several management reorganizations and layoffs in its Motorola and smartphone businesses since Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014 for $2.9 billion.
Lenovo operates two global headquarters – one in Morrisville and the other in Beijing.
