Rabu, 23 April 2008

With Motorolas prominent competitors such as Nokia, Samsung, and LG Electronics all turning up their noses at the idea of acquiring its ailing mobile handset operation, there appears to be growing interest among smaller Asian telecommunications companies about working with Motorola.

A Web site run by the Financial Times reported this week that unnamed Asian suppliers have been talking with Motorola about forging an alliance. Since Motorolas mobile devices unit lost $1.2 billion last year, Motorolas new CEO Greg Brown continues to predict more gloom and doom for the unit in the next few months.

The unit accounts for about $19 billion of Motorolas $36.62 billion in 2007 sales and will probably require a partner, or partners, with deep pockets to help bail it out. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has been pressuring Motorola to sell various units for months, also is urging the company to sell the unit or enter into a beneficial financial partnership. Icahn and his investors own more than 6% of Motorolas shares.

Motorola has been talking for months with Chinas ZTE Corporation, which has ambitions to grow its mobile phone market share.

Investment banking analysts have expressed confidence that Brown, who has a telecom background, can fix the handset operation if he gets the time and money to do it. Outgoing CEO Ed Zander, who came from Sun Microsystems, had a computer background and never understood the finer points of the cell phone and telecom business.

Motorolas mobile phone freefall became evident last summer when Samsung pushed Motorola into a third place market-share ranking. Nokia has been in first place for years. Motorola has responded by introducing a brace of new handsets, installing a new management team, lowering inventory, and reducing its workforce. But so far, nothing has turned the tide.

See original article on InformationWeek.com

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