Carl Icahn Steps Up the Pressure on Motorola

Carl Icahn and his affiliates have released the details of letter they have sent to Motorola shareholders, urging them to elect Frank Biondi, Jr., William R. Hambrecht, Lionel C. Kimerling and Keith Meister as directors of Motorola at the 2008 annual meeting of stockholders of Motorola.

In addition, Icahn is filing a lawsuit in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware seeking a court order requiring Motorola to make certain materials demanded by Icahn from Motorola available for inspection.

Mr. Icahn stated: "Over the past 12 months the statements and predictions of Motorola's management and the Board about Mobile Devices business have too often proven to be wrong. We want to ascertain what the Board could have done in the exercise of its fiduciary duty to assure Motorola stockholders that Motorola's statements and predictions were not incorrect and would not provide Motorola stockholders with an inaccurate perspective on the prospects for the Mobile Devices business."

Mr. Icahn further stated: "We demanded these materials for the purposes of enabling us to investigate whether and to what extent the Board of Directors of Motorola failed in their duties as directors in supervising management and setting policy and direction of Motorola. We intend to share with Motorola's stockholders information obtained pursuant to the request as part of our proxy battle with Motorola. Motorola has responded that they will not comply with our demand."

Over the past year, Carl Icahn has also increased his shareholding in the company from 1.4% to 6.3% as of 6th March.

Carl Icahn has been waging a long term campaign to force Motorola to sell off its mobile handsets business - and would have been doubtless cheered by the announcement in February that the company is undertaking a "strategic review", which may - or may not - result in such a disposal.

Posted to the site on 24th March 2008

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