Cablevision and Viacom Face Off in Court and 2 Other Hot Stocks

Continuing losses at Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Motorola Mobility hardware unit have forced it to lay off about 1,200 employees in the US, China and India. Last August, Motorola announced plans to lay off 4, 000 employees. The latest layoffs are in addition to plans to reduce 4,000 jobs announced by the company in August last year. Google acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion in 2011, but has been struggling to make the unit profitable. In the fourth quarter of 2012, the unit posted a loss of more than $350 million. Often referred to as Google’s ‘insurance policy’ in case took Samsung overwhelming control of Android, the unit sorely needs a product hit that could compete with devices produced by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung. A media report in December said Motorola was working on a device called the X Phone that could become the new face of phones from Google.