Motorola wields jobs axe again

Loss-making mobile phone maker Motorola is to axe a further 7,000 jobs.

The announcement came as the firm forecast it was heading for its fourth successive quarter in the red.

Since the start of the year, Motorola has now cut a total of 39,000 jobs, equivalent to more than one quarter of the firm's workforce at the end of 2000.

Motorola chief Robert Growney said that about 4,000 of the jobs cut in the latest wave were associated with sold businesses, with a further 3,000 earmarked for loss through cuts and attrition.

"Motorola will continue to take appropriate cost-reduction actions," he said.

Chip market slump

The announcement came a day after Motorola revealed it had run at a loss of $153m (£105m) in the July to September quarter.

While the handset division ran at a $19m profit, both sales and orders at the firm's semiconductor division almost halved.

"The semiconductor unit in particular is just a continuing drag on their business," analyst Todd Bernier, at Morningstar, said.

Motorola on Wednesday forecast that chip sales across the industry would slump by more than one quarter during 2001, but rise 5% next year and 10% in 2003.

Mobile phone sales, which analysts once estimated would reach 600 million this year, will fall to 380-400 million across the industry, the company estimated.

Cellphone sales next year will rise to an estimated 420-450 million,

The firm said it expects to lose the equivalent of 4-5 cents per shares in the last three months of the year. The July-to-September loss equated to 7 cents per share.

Motorola shares, which fell below $16 in early trade, ended $0.19 higher at $16.91.