Motorola to wield axe with 3,000 job losses after traumatic Q3

Motorola is set to cut 3,000 jobs after suffering a dramatic £244m global loss in the third quarter.

Motorola also admitted that the intended move to split off the handset business will now not take place until next year.

The job cuts are in addition to more than 9,000 cuts it has made since last year. It is not yet known which countries will see the job losses.

A steep drop in handset sales has seen Motorola drop to forth place in the global handset market behind Nokia, Samsung and now Sony Ericsson. The handset unit’s revenue dropped 31% to £1.9bn, while its operating loss grew from £152m to £518m.

Motorola has higher hopes for 2009, during which it is expected to release its first handset with the Google Android platform.