Motorola RAZR2 V9 Now In Ferrari Overalls

I came across an article on Gizmos.es which mentioned that Motorola is now going one step further with its Ferrari Limited edition phones. The latest model from Motorola’s stable to receive the “Scarlet makeover” is the Motorola RAZR2 V9.

There will be no changes in the phone specifications and initially will go sale in Latin America and Asia. Motorola has a Luxury Edition of its RAZR2 with a gold and snakeskin theme which was recently released in India.

Any guesses how much the Prancing Horse edition of the RAZR2 is going to blow a hole? Let me know.

Image Source: Gizmos.es, Techgadgets.in

Motorola Round Up

Icahn Triumphs At Last!

Motorola has caved in to Carl Icahn’s demands and has announced that that it will appointing Keith Meister as a non-executive and nominate William Hambrecht to the Motorola board at its annual general meeting. In return, Icahn will withdraw all pending litigation against Motorola. In addition, Motorola has also agreed to seek input from Icahn in connection with significant matters regarding the intended separation of the Mobile Devices business, including the search for a new chief executive to head the Mobile Devices business. This might probably bring to an end the 18-month squabble between Icahn and Motorola. Only time will tell.

Indians Flying High

After two of the legendary British marquees came under the management of Tata Motors, it was the turn of Videocon to express interest in acquiring a part of American heritage, Motorola. Motorola recently celebrated 35^th anniversary of the world’s first cell phone. Standing at the corner of New York's 56th and Lexington 35 years ago on April 3rd, 1973, Marty Cooper placed the first ever cell phone call to Bell Labs engineer Joe Engel. Coming on the eve of the anniversary, many guffawed at Videocon’s interest to acquire the Mobile Handset division of Motorola. Some termed it as arrogant. Some said that it was impossible and immature of Videocon as it had no prior experience. Well Americans are yet to come to terms with “nothing is impossible” attitude of the Indians. Why don’t they ask the British?

Motorola Shuts Shop At Singapore

Motorola has announced that it will stop making mobile phones in Singapore by the end of the year, a move that will result in the loss of 700 jobs. According to a Motorola spokeswoman “The decision follows a strategic review of business operations, which includes a previously announced global $500 million cost-reduction initiative". However Moto will continue to base its headquarters for Asia-Pacific in Singapore where it also has units engaged in research and software development.

Axe Effect?

Motorola announced that it is axing a further 2,600 workers, thereby bringing the company's total employee cuts to more than 10,000 since last year. The company said that the cutbacks are being made across all divisions. In a filing, Motorola said that it will take a pre-tax charge of about $104m (£52m) in the first quarter to cover severance costs from the new layoffs. If we look back to 2007, Motorola had said that it would cut 3,500 jobs as part of a two-year cost-cutting plan to save $400m. Then again the company announced cuts of another 4,000 jobs in May last year with hopes of improving its financial and operational results. Statistics say that Moto has cut more than 10pc of its workforce since the start of 2007. The company will make public its full first-quarter financial results on April 24. Anyone willing to bet on the continuance of the Axe Effect?

Source: The Telegraph, Reuters, Forbes, Times Online IndianInfoOnline

Motorola: The Legend Bites Dust. For Now. Watch Out For A Phoenix Like Rebirth.

It rained cats and dogs back here in Bangalore, while I sat back and watched the saga unfold on my computer. The news started to pour in and boy did it pour!

Almost every publication worth its salt started chronicling the “death of the cell phone legend” and all the while I waited for the storm clouds to clear.

Continuing with my series on Motorola let me start where I had left off. With Moto’s executives jumping the ship and the controversies that were dogging Moto, something had to give. With Icahn, the dog with the bone (referring to his investment in Moto) always looking to take a bite whenever the opportune moment presented itself, pity and empathy were my feeling for Moto.

The last straw had to be broken for something catastrophic to happen and that was Icahn’s lawsuit. Icahn sought a court order that would force Motorola to turn over documents about its trademark cell-phone business and senior executives. Among other materials, Icahn is seeking board documents related to a potential spinoff of the cell-phone unit, the service and selection of Motorola's senior officers and materials related to the use of company aircraft by senior management, board members and their families.

Icahn’s official jumbo mumbo was: “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.”

But really, Icahn wanted to use these documents to use it as leverage in his proxy battle. He hoped that these would give more bite to his attempt to get his men nominated to Moto’s board.

Motorola resisted initially and then relented and offered him two seats on the board, but refused to even consider one of his men (Keith Meister) doubting his credentials. This enraged Icahn and like a bloodhound which had smelt blood, stuck to his guns and called for a breakup.

Adding further insult, Icahn questioned if Brown is fit to run the company, asking what “qualified” Brown to be the CEO. “He certainly -- as far as I can ascertain -- has no in-depth experience or knowledge concerning the mobile devices business, which was and is by far the major problem for Motorola,” Icahn said in a letter.

Then came the bolt fro the blue.

Motorola announced the decision to spit the company into two entities. One will be the Motorola’s legendary handset business. The other would be Motorola's broadband and mobility solutions operations. These include the profitable home networks business, which sells television set-top boxes, and enterprise mobility solutions, which supplies computing, broadband network gear, including WiMAX technology and communications equipment to companies.

The company announced that it will bring about the changes sometime in 2009.

Icahn though smirking over his victory, shot off a letter to Motorola’s board again asking them why it will take until 2009 to separate the businesses.

Mr. Brown trying to salvage some pride insisted that Motorola's decision to split had nothing to do with pressure from Mr. Icahn.

However the analysts predict that the short-term winners will be Nokia and Samsung, and maybe Sony Ericsson; who will be able to increase their market share. But in the longer term, Motorola can stage a comeback.

I still remember fondly the iconic DynaTAC released in 1984.

It makes me proud owning a Motorola Razr 2 v8, that it’s a part of history. A legend in every sense.

Today, the split is seen as a possible scenario where Motorola would be ultimately acquired by some Chinese company.

Watch out, for the Phoenix will rise from the ashes to soar into the skies which it once owned.

Only time will tell……

Motorola Round-Up

Motorola Shedding Employees To Stem Losses

Richard Thurston of The Register reports that Motorola is poised to axe half the staff at its design facility in Birmingham, as Moto tries to turn around its beleaguered mobile devices division. All the 121 staff at the facility were told Tuesday they are at risk of redundancy. Motorola is proposing to make half of them redundant and said it may close the site.

Therefore, all employees will initially be placed at 'risk of redundancy' whilst alternative opportunities including redeployment, relocation, flexible working/home working or the opportunity of a 'service site' arrangement are investigated as part of the consultation process.

The company said it would consult employees on the proposed redundancies over the next 90 days. The cuts would likely follow soon after.

The Birmingham facility is a Design Centre, so most of the job losses will be among technical staff.

A company spokesperson said cagily that Motorola would not be invoking job losses at the company's other UK sites.

Motorola has this year already laid off 155 people at Cambridgeshire-based TTPCom, a business which it acquired two years ago.

Tinkering Goes On At Motorola……When Will It Stop?

Today on March 19^th Motorola has shuffled three finance executives in its latest shake-up. Marc Rothman former controller, is now the new head of finance for the mobile devices unit taking over from Jim MacLaughlin who has left the company. Jim MacLaughlin was a 29-year veteran at Motorola. Motorola promoted Laurie Meissner and Kyle Spainhour from within the finance department to take over Rothman's previous responsibilities.

Watch this space for more updates….

Source: Chicago Tribune

The Exodus From Motorola Continues Unabated

As Teresa von Fuchs said “The revolving door keeps turning at Motorola” as the flailing handset maker announced two more senior executive changes on March 17.

Larry R. Raymond has replaced Steve Strobel as treasurer and that Stephen Nolan will oversee mobile devices in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), taking over the responsibilities from Mike Fenger.

However, a pattern has emerged regarding the appointments. Paul Liska as I had mentioned in an earlier post is a private-equity executive who was previously with Sears Roebuck as CFO. Raymond is also a private-equity executive who was also associated with Sears Roebuck. The million dollar question begs to be answered: Is it going to stop the rut?

Only time will tell. In the meantime private-equity executives have taken control of high profile positions at Motorola.

A Recap on High Profile Exits At Moto

WSJ believes that the leadership changes are part of an overall plan to swiftly transform the senior executive team at Moto.

The first three months of 2008 have marked major management changes at Moto. In addition to the CFO change and today’s changes, Ed Zander announced his resignation late last year and Greg Brown took over as CEO in January. Zander’s exit announcement was quickly followed by news that Padmasree Warrior, a top tech mind at Moto who is largely credited for the company’s Razr success, had left for Cisco.

An Old Nemesis…….Plotting Motorola’s Downfall?

As I had posted earlier, Carl Icahn who has increased his stake in Motorola to 6% is now campaigning ferverently to place 4 of his nominees on the 12 member board of Motorola.

Icahn was snubbed in his earlier attempt to get on to the board by Zander. Now Motorola supposedly at its weakest, is trying to fend of Icahn who is in turn favoring break up of Motorola.

However, industry’s analysts point out that no matter what Motorola does to fend him off, the conditions favor Icahn. But still, Icahn has to win over some of the major stakeholders like Thrivent Asset Management LLC in Minneapolis, which controls 1 million shares; in order to have his way.

Will this soap opera come to an end on May 5, when the voting takes place?

Time only will tell……..

Motorola Getting Itself Mired In Political Controversy

In one of the earlier posts I had talked about Motorola getting embroiled in a political controversy in Malaysia.

Motorola on 19^th March denied reports it was involved in a kickback scheme in exchange for a large government contract in Malaysia. The company and key government officials are strongly disputing the accusations, which have been brought by political opponents who have seized the opportunistic moment as the elections are on the threshold.

Motorola tried to defend its pullout from Malaysia saying that it was a strategic business response as the company was under heavy pressure to relocate its operations, possibly to China thereby cutting costs.

Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson denied the allegations.

"Our commitment to transparency and strict code of conduct define the way we act and do business," Erickson said. "As a responsible corporate citizen, Motorola abides by the laws and regulations of each country in which we operate. This includes competing fairly and openly to provide the best possible solutions for our customers who seek world class communications systems."

Malaysia since 1972 has been a major site for Motorola’s operations employing around 4,000 people.

Motorola Malaysia communications and public affairs manager Tham Mei Ling has reportedly said that Motorola was "fully committed" to Malaysia.

What twists and turns this controversy is going to take….only time will tell.

A Concept Phone for Motorola

Came across an interesting piece of story that is been circulated around, it’s about a concept phone for Motorola designed by a Frenchman Lysandre Follet. Now whether Motorola had commissioned Follet to design a concept phone, it’s not yet clear, but here’s the dig on the concept phone.

It’s been nicknamed the “Brick” by some publications for obvious reasons, it’s quite broad. It supposedly has a multimedia player, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi. At least there are indications that the designer wants all these features on the phone.

Now here’s where it gets wacky. It has a stereo camera. When decoded into plain simple lingo, it has two cameras side by side. It’s got dual flash to boot! One each for the two cameras. This will come in handy while taking 3-d panoramic shots. Apparently, one camera can be used for recording videos and the other for taking pictures at the same time ! ! ! Wow.

This concept was first posted on Coroflot.

Motorola promises a fine showing at CTIA Wireless

In an earlier post I had lamented about Motorola’s poor showing at the World Mobile Congress. Well it seems Motorola is finally pulling up its socks. A sneak preview of Motorola’s upcoming phone line up was posted on YouTube.

Apparently Motorola was planning to make big announcements at CTIA Wireless scheduled from April 1-3 instead. It seems that Motorola was reluctant to unveil its line-up of phones at the Mobile World Congress. They wanted to get away from the din and chaos of the Mobile World Congress and chose a quieter venue to announce their phone line-up.

Well Motorola we are waiting and please do not let us down this time…

Is Motorola a sinking ship…….When will it finally sink?

Stu Reed, the former president of its struggling cell phone unit, is leaving the company. Reed's departure is the latest in a series of executive reshuffles at Motorola, which comes a month after Chief Executive Greg Brown took over the unit and said that he was considering options such as splitting it off from the rest of the company.

This has come close on the heels of another announcement last week that Motorola Inc.'s chief marketing officer Casey Keller has left the company.

If this wasn’t enough, Motorola finds itself embroiled in another controversy.South Korea's Fair Trade Commission has announced today that it has levied a fine of 696 million won, or $729,000, on Motorola Korea Inc. for helping three South Korean companies collude to get orders from government agencies. The three companies worked as sales agents for Motorola's trunked radio system, sold in the South Korean market, the statement said.

Well one can only wonder….what next? Is Motorola an overstuffed giant that needs to be cut down to size….Is this a valid explanation for the string of departures happening at Motorola?

Motorola’s cup of woes is still overflowing….Is Carl Icahn the person who can stem the tide?

For the fourth-quarter, Motorola reported an 83.9% drop in earnings to $100 million, or 4 cents per share, compared to last year’s $623 million, or 25 cents per share.

Then, Motorola announced that it is exploring a restructuring which could include the sale of its mobile phone business.

In order to stem the losses, CEO Greg Brown took over the mobile handset division from Stu Reed. He also replaced acting CFO Tom Meredith with Paul Liska.

Motorola unveiled some unimpressive models at the World Mobile Congress. No surprises there.

Still, Motorola shares were down 38 % in 2008.

If this wasn’t enough, Motorola is getting itself embroiled in a political controversy.

Bill Ray from The Register reported that when Motorola threatened to abandon Malaysia, causing 10,000 job losses, the outgoing Malaysian Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon wrote to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi asking that a £150m contract for upgrading the country’s police radios be awarded to Motorola. In return Motorola would agree to invest £55m in the country. In the view of impending elections, this letter caused a political furore in Malaysia when it was leaked to the media.

Carl Icahn, now has increased his share to 6.3%. He is looking to muscle his way into the Board of Directors by nominating people from his trusted circle. Motorola’s shares temporarily shot up.

Though proving to be an eternal thorn in Motorola’s side, somehow one gets the feeling that Carl Icahn is the only person who might be able to guide Motorola out of the mess it has fallen into.