Tis' the Season to be Fired

By Timmy Watson in News on Jan 21, 2007 6:02PM

It's that time of the year, 2006 numbers are being announced and to combat a drop in the stock price companies often throw a bone to the shareholders in the form of a workforce reduction. There were some layoffs that took place in and around the Chicago area this week. Schaumburg based Motorola announced on Friday that they will be cutting 3,500 jobs and Time, Inc. announced it will be shutting its doors in Chicago for Time magazine and People magazine.

Motorola's announcement came at the same time they announced a 48% drop in 4th quarter profit. Profit for the company was $624 million compared to $1.2 billion this time last year. CEO Ed Zander, said that despite talk about Razr sales declining they have sold more this quarter than they ever have. The loss in profit is attributed to high operating costs, which definitely go down when you cut 5% of your workforce. Motorola did not release the number for cuts in specific regions.

Time, Inc. cut nearly 300 jobs in what seems to be a reshaping of the company. Time, Inc., which runs Time, People, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune said the cuts were needed as the company moves to provide multi-platform content. Essentially they are trying to bring more to the web. In addition to the closures of the Chicago bureaus, the company is closing down shop in Washington, Miami, and Austin. In the increasingly unprofitable world of print business Time is trying to stay afloat. In January the company moved their release to Friday, hoping to shape more of the conversation in the news for the week.