Motorola may be moving closer to breakup
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, signs are growing that Motorola is considering whether or not it should piecemeal the company. Activist investor Carl Icahn claims that breaking the company up could translate to $20 billion in additional shareholder value. Analysts seem to agree with Icahn's basic points, but many caution that if Motorola cannot fix the problems with its handset division, then a breakup may not prove as profitable as Icahn suggests. Motorola's CEO Ed Zander recently stepped down from the position. Motorola's CTO Padmasree Warrior also resigned to take the CTO post at Cisco.
For more on Moto's plans:
- read this WSJ article (sub. req.)
Comments (3) | Post a comment
Comments
By Will Strauss | Posted 3:12pm | December 13, 2007
Several years ago, before Zander, Motorola began to geographically separate each of its divisions, with Motorola Mobile Devices (the handset division) in Libertyville, Motorola Networks (the base station and infrastructure division) in Arlington Heights, Motorola Connected Home (which was already in Horsham, PA), etc. It was clear at the time that this was a move enabling future spinoffs.
By Anonymous | Posted 3:14pm | December 13, 2007
Uh, I thk thats suppossed to read: pieceMAIL not pieceMEAL. Piecemeal is an old marvel comics character which certainly makes for a change in interpretation...
By Anonymous | Posted 5:06pm | December 13, 2007
PieceMEAL, meaning, "By a small amount at a time; in stages: articles acquired piecemeal." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/piecemeal Whether they break it up or not, they still have to deal with a well entrenched mediocracy.