Carl Icahn Wants To Break Up Motorola

by Darren

Carl Icahn has been an outspoken critic of Motorola, and now he wants to see the company broken up. Icahn got what he wanted when the company announced Ed Zander was out as CEO. But he said that alone is not enough to save the company.

After Motorola announced Nov. 30 that Greg Brown would replace Zander as CEO on Jan. 1, Icahn, who unsuccessfully sought a Motorola board seat in May in hopes of forcing Zander out, said in a statement that Zander’s departure would not be enough to turn around the “major problems” facing Motorola.

“The best opportunity for the mobile devices’ business to attract top flight management and to prosper and grow is to establish it as a stand alone business,” Ichan said. “In my opinion, Motorola should be split into separate companies: a mobile devices company; an enterprise mobility company; a connected home company; and a company focused on mobile networks infrastructure.”

Icahn has had things go his way in the past, so it’s not completely unrealistic that such a break up could happen. The situation is bad at the company that invented the cell phone.