Following its acquisition by Google, Motorola Mobility announced sweeping layoffs last October with about 4,000 people — 20 percent of all employees — losing their jobs. It seems the restructuring didn't go far enough, however, as the Wall Street Journal reports that the unit will make a further cut of around 1,200 people, or over a tenth of the workforce, in the US, China, and India. A Motorola spokesperson said:

"These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer. It's obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition."

According to a company-wide email seen by the Journal, the company believes "our costs are too high, we're operating in markets where we're not competitive, and we're losing money." The email also notes that "while we're very optimistic about the new products in our pipeline, we still face challenges."

That pipeline came into the spotlight recently when Google CFO Patrick Pichette said that Motorola's upcoming products are "not really to the standards that what Google would say is wow — innovative, transformative." Google earlier suggested that the still-unprofitable Motorola would come good with future devices, but with an 18-month pipeline to work through first, it‘s likely to be a while before things start to look healthy.