Lenovo cuts 1,100 staff to ensure 'profitable growth'

Chinese PC maker confirms reports of headcount reductions focused on its Motorola arm

Hardware giant Lenovo has confirmed reports it has laid off upwards of 1,100 staff primarily from its Motorola smartphone unit.

The manufacturer said in a statement it will cut up to two percent of its 55,000 headcount, tagging the job losses as "part of the ongoing strategic integration" of the Motorola business into its overall portfolio, Droid Life first reported.

Lenovo said the cuts are not confined solely to its mobile business but wouldn't say how many of its Motorola unit employees it intends to let go, nor how many workers are subject to losing their jobs in other divisions.

"While these actions are never easy, they are a necessary part of our continued efforts to ensure long-term, profitable growth across all of our businesses," the company said.

This round of layoffs comes on the heels of Lenovo's recent FQ1 performance in which its smartphone sales dropped six percent to $1.7bn compared to last year. It's also just a year removed from the manufacturer's wider reaching 3,200-person layoff late last summer.

Lenovo said that despite the job cuts it still intends to retain its Motorola Mobility headquarters in Chicago, waving off chatter that it may move the remaining staff to its offices in North Carolina.

"Chicago has a well-deserved reputation for technical excellence and as the hub of our global R&D for our smartphone business we expect to take advantage of local talent to continue developing Moto products there," the manufacturer said in the statement.

Earlier this year, Lenovo enacted a substantial overhaul of its operations that included the exit of boss Rick Osterloh and the repositioning of a number of top executives and departments.

At the time, the vendor said the Motorola teams previously reporting to Osterloh would be housed in the Mobile Business Group (MBG), overseen by co-presidents Xudong Chen and Aymar de Lencquesaing, with the former concentrating on China sales and the latter on emerging and mature markets.

It's not clear if that organisation delineation is still holding with the latest staff reductions.