Motorola Mobility on Monday has shut down its website as part its global headquarters decision.

“We are streamlining our business and support systems, and unfortunately, we’ll no longer have a dedicated Web site for India,” it said on its homepage.

However, it also said its ‘local support site’ will remain open as it will continue to provide support for existing products. It has given a hyperlink for that in the message.

Search engine giant Google had bought the company’s handset division in May for $12.5 billion and since then has worked to reshape its business. The acquisition was done more for owning the patents held by Motorola more than anything else. The move had initially raised doubts among some of the Android device makers that were worried about Google showing preference to Motorola.

The handset maker in August had told its employees that it would lay off 20 per cent (around 4,000 people) of its workforce and close a third of its 94 offices worldwide.

Motorola Mobility, in India with head office in Gurgaon, has around 300 people.

Google bought Motorola to use its more than 17,000 patents that could help compete with others. It also plans to use Motorola’s expertise in making its own smartphones and other mobile devices. The fate of Motorola’s India operations is still uncertain.

Industry watchers said that the Web site closure could be an indication of the company’s intent.

A Motorola spokesperson in May told Business Line that Motorola has a long-standing presence in India and the Asia-Pacific region. Mobility is owned by Google but will keep its operations separate. However, Motorola Mobility’s financial performance will be broken out as part of Google’s quarterly results, the spokesperson had said, adding that Motorola will remain a licensee of Google Android.

>ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in

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