Motorola appointed Sanjay Jha co-chief executive and head of its ailing mobile-device business, which is expected to be split off as a separate public company in a year.
Motorola said Greg Brown, who has been Motorola's CEO, also will serve as co-CEO and was named leader of the broadband network operations.
The announcement for Brown and Jha to share responsibility of the company and dividing their oversight of the two units, marks Motorola's latest step in moving toward splitting into two independent, publicly-traded companies.
Jha, 45 years old, joins Motorola from Qualcomm, where he served for 14 years, most recently as chief operating officer and president of its CDMA technologies unit.
Shares of Motorola jumped 7.6% to $9.48 in recent premarket trading, while Qualcomm slid 2% to $54.55.
Qualcomm said Len Lauer, who has been an executive vice president, will succeed Jha as operating chief while Steve Mollenkopf was named president of the CDMA technologies unit. Mollenkopf was the segment's executive vice president.
Qualcomm Chief Executive Paul E. Jacobs credited Jha with being "instrumental in growing (the CDMA business) into the No. 1 wireless semiconductor supplier."
Brown said, "I am confident Sanjay will continue the important progress we have made and strengthen our ability to deliver innovative products and experiences to market for the long-term future of this business."
Last week, Motorola reported a surprising second-quarter profit, which showed cost cutting helped the company break even despite a wider loss at its troubled cellphone business. Meanwhile, figures released Thursday showed Motorola maintained its share of the global cellphone market, surprising analysts who had expected the company's position to continue eroding.
Brown made clear on a conference call with analysts Friday that even his third-quarter target for the split-off of the mobile-devices unit, which would be 18 months after the company first outlined the separation plan, depends on a reduction in the division's losses. The unit's losses widened slightly in the second quarter.
"Mobile Devices does need continued improvement in financial performance, as well as a better level of predictability, and that improvement is crucial to a successful separation," Brown said in an interview. He warned that the division's market share was likely to fall again in the third quarter.
The second-quarter results demonstrated the rationale for the split, with deterioration in the mobile-devices business offset by growth in Motorola's other operations.
-By Donna Kardos, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5963; donna.kardos@dowjones.com
(Sara Silver of The Wall Street Journal and Roger Cheng of Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report.)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 4th August 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/32842.php