CHICAGO, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Wireless phone and electronics giant Motorola Inc. Wednesday warned it will not meet fourth-quarter profit estimates and said it will cut another 7,000 jobs.
The announcement brings to 39,000 the number of layoffs at the Schaumburg, Ill., corporation since December. Motorola had about 147,000 employees at the end of last year and will have shed about 25 percent of its worldwide workforce at the end of 2000, with about 108,000 workers remaining.
"Motorola will continue to take appropriate cost-reduction actions," said outgoing president and chief executive officer Robert Growney.
Growney, who will be succeeded by 36-year-old Edward Breen in January, said about 4,000 of the latest job cuts were the result of sold businesses and another 3,000 cuts would be accomplished through layoffs and attrition.
Motorola Tuesday reported a $1.4 billion loss for the quarter ended Sept. 30. -- its fourth straight money-losing quarter. Losses for the first nine months of 2001 were $2.7 billion on sales of $22.68 billion.
Blaming the economic slowdown and slow growth in the global mobile phone market, Motorola said it expects a loss of between 4 cents and 5 cents a share on fourth-quarter revenue of around $7.5 billion.
Motorola said it expects handset cell phone sales and profitability to improve, but that semiconductor sales would remain poor.
