Motorola plan to cut 6,000 jobs worldwide

Motorola says it plans to axe another 6,000 jobs worldwide by the end of this year, despite reporting a narrower-than-expected second-quarter loss.

Investors have been cheered by Motorola's improved performance, but it may not be enough to save the jobs of thousands of staff.

Chief operating officer Bob Growney says the US-based telecoms company expects to cut a total of 30,000 jobs by the end of the year, after axing 24,000 by the end of the second quarter.

Mr Growney says the job cuts, combined with other cost reduction measures, will allow the company to save a total of $1.8bn - that's nearly £1.3bn - for the year.

He adds: "We expect another difficult quarter from the profit perspective. But there has been one development of significance, and that is that our backlog has increased."

He says the company expects sales to grow by 5% in the third quarter.

Motorola says it remains focused on improving its balance sheet and operating cashflow and expects to further cut its debt by year-end.

Total sales for the three months to June come in at $7.5bn - that's £5.3bn. This compares with $9.2bn in the same period last year.

Sales within Motorola's personal communications division have fallen by 25% to $2.5bn - or £1.8bn.

The company is also considering taking legal action against Turkish telecom group Telsim after it defaulted on a $728m (or £518m) loan payment.