Mobile Phone Woes Weigh On Motorola

Article Excerpt

MOTOROLA INC. $7.47 (New York symbol MOT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 2.3 billion; Market cap: $17.2 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) has struggled in the past few months due to falling sales and earnings at its mobile phone operations. Under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns about 6% of the stock, Motorola now plans to break itself up into two publicly traded companies — the mobile phone business (52% of sales in 2007), and the wireless infrastructure and home equipment operations (48%). Motorola is still working out the details of the split, which it expects to complete in 2009. The company will structure the transaction as a tax-free distribution. Motorola’s phone business faces growing competition from high-end smartphones that can retrieve email and connect to the Internet, particularly Apple’s iPhone. Motorola is also losing market share to makers of low-cost phones designed for emerging markets such as China and India. However, the company continues to spend about…