Motorola To Trim 1,000 Jobs

Motorola said it would cut 1,000 jobs, a move prompted by the spinout of
its Freescale Semiconductor subsidiary.

The company expects to pay $50 million in severance from the beginning of
the third quarter of 2004 through the first quarter of 2005 as part of the plan, which impacts about 1 percent of the company’s workforce.

In addition to corporate posts, the layoffs will hit three of Motorola’s
business segments: Commercial, Government and Industrial Solutions;
Integrated Electronics Systems; and Broadband Communications, the company
said in a regulatory filing.

“Motorola continues to retain and attract top talent in fields critical to
Motorola, such as engineering, marketing, technology and finance — in all
of Motorola’s businesses,” Jennifer Weyrauch, a company spokeswoman, told
internetnews.com.

Because other hiring could offset the cuts, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based
company’s 88,000-person workforce may not decrease as a result of the announced
reductions.

The cuts come nine months after the handset and wireless networking giant hired
former Sun Microsystems president Ed Zander to turn the company around.

Motorola made news on two other fronts today, as well. First it disclosed
that it received $218 million in proceeds from the sale of shares in Nextel
Communications .

Second, the company’s venture capital arm made an undisclosed investment in
Bluefire Security Technologies. The Baltimore-based company will use the
backing to accelerate development of its Mobile Firewall Plus suite of
security applications.

When installed on a handheld, Bluefire said its software provides
authentication, encryption and an integrated mobile Virtual Private Network
and firewall, without consuming significant processor resources or memory.