Date: 03-28-2008
Motorola Inc. is planning to split itself into two separate publicly traded companies due to pressure resulting from unprofitable returns to investors from its mobile unit. One of the two resultant companies will handle Motorola’s cell phone handset business, and the other company, which is profitable, will cover production of networking equipment for big broadband carriers and corporate customers. Motorola, which invented mobile technology 30 years ago, is now having a tough time finding an investor for its mobile unit and a suitable executive to run it. The company, which is incurring huge losses through the mobile unit, was pressured into taking this move by activist investor Carl C. Icahn. The billionaire investor said that the decision was “clearly a step in the right direction,” although he was displeased with Motorola’s lack of swiftness in solving its problems.
