Motorola: former CFO fired for cause

Motorola said Tuesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the departure last month of former CFO Paul Liska was a termination that had due cause.

In a proxy statement filing, the handset maker said that Liska was "involuntarily terminated for cause" on Feb. 19. That means that Liska will have to repay a $400,000 cash signing bonus he received and must also give up other incentive awards. The statement said that cause can be defined as "willful and continued failure to substantially perform duties."

The company also said in the filing that it was introducing a program that would give employees the option to trade-in worthless stock options for a smaller number of new options that have a lower exercise price.

In early February Motorola reported a $3.6 billion net loss in the fourth quarter of 2008, and said at the time that Liska would leave  the company. Motorola's mobile devices division posted a $595 million operating loss in the quarter.

For more:
- see this article [1]
- see this article [1] on the stock options

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