When Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced its break-up plans earlier this year, it said it would consider moving the mobile-devices unit out of its long-standing Chicago-area offices.
Any relocation would have a big impact on the Libertyville campus, where thousands of Motorolans are based. But the company now says that a move would impact fewer than 200 workers, and it wouldn’t happen until after this year. It also said it is considering multiple locations, including downtown Chicago, other nearby suburbs, as well as Dallas or Silicon Valley, reports The Chicago Daily Herald.
Co-CEO Sanjay Jha, who will run the mobile-devices unit, previously worked at San Diego-based Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) and still maintains a home in California, which is what in part led people to believe that the state could be a contender. Jha also told the WSJ in February that “We’ll go where that talent is, and right now, that looks like California.” To be sure, California would place the handset-maker much closer to Google (NSDQ: GOOG), an important partner since Motorola has focused its comeback on the Android OS.
A Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson, said “Illinois is very important to Motorola and today the company employs more than 10,000 people in the greater Chicago-area. Regardless of any potential relocation, Motorola will continue to maintain a meaningful presence in the state of Illinois.”
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