Meng Pu, president for Motorola Greater China, has resigned with the coming of the company's second-round layoff plans in China.
According to reports in Chinese local media, Motorola will soon start the second-round layoff in China and the company will have less than 200 employees left in the country, working mainly in the carrier business division.
An internal email from Motorola quoted in local media confirmed the departure of Meng and said his role will be temporarily taken over by Liu Fei, president of Motorola Asia Pacific. Meng was president for Motorola Greater China before Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility. In 2012, he had the difficult task of cutting 1,000 employees in China.
During the first quarter of 2013, Motorola sold less than 400,000 devices in China, a year-on-year decrease of 60%; and its performance was far behind other mobile phone brands like Samsung, HTC, and ZTE. In South Korea, due to the pressure from Samsung and LG, Motorola withdrew from the market in 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2012, Motorola's market share in the global smartphone market was only 1.9%.