Home sweet home
Motorola Mobility, which was purchased by Google earlier this year, will move the bulk of its headquarters from Libertyville to the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, cutting over 700 jobs in the process.
The company, a former mobile phone giant now surpassed by Apple and Samsung, is in the process of reinventing itself. Google hopes that it can foster change by creating a small, creative group within the company known as Advanced Technology and Products. They’ve recruited a former director of DARPA to run the skunk-works style research center. It remains to be seen whether the ship can be turned.
One person who is not skeptical, at least in public, is Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, who reportedly sees the move to the city from the ‘burbs as evidence of Chicago’s rise as a tech center.
