The company’s Motorola Mobility handset unit said Friday that it will shutter a factory in Fort Worth, Texas, by the end of the year.
The factory opened in May 2013. A few months later, former Motorola Chief Executive Dennis Woodside said it would challenge conventional wisdom that manufacturing in the U.S. is too expensive. At its peak late last year, the factory employed as many as 3,800 people, most on behalf of contract manufacturer Flextronics International Ltd.
Today, the factory employs about 700 workers who assemble high-end Moto X smartphones that are sold in the U.S., a Motorola spokesman said.
“What we found was that the North American market was exceptionally tough,” Motorola President Rick Osterloh said in an interview.
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