Icahn Picks Four Nominees
To Shake-Up Motorola Board
By SARA SILVER
February 1, 2008 6:23 p.m.
Activist investor Carl Icahn nominated four candidates for the board of Motorola Inc., who will try to push the troubled handset maker to quickly spin off or sell the handset division.
Meanwhile, Motorola CEO Greg Brown is assuming direct oversight of the company's struggling handset division, after shifting aside division chief Stu Reed.
Mr. Brown's move comes the day after Motorola announced it was contemplating selling or spinning off the division. Mr. Reed, who was only recently appointed to the job from his previous position as head of supply chain management, is still with the company. He will work closely with Mr. Brown, a Motorola spokeswoman said.
Mr. Ichan's four nominees are Frank Biondi, Jr., former chief executive officer of Viacom Inc.; William R. Hambrecht, co-founder of the former investment bank Hambrecht & Quist; Lionel C. Kimerling, a professor of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Keith Meister, managing director of the Icahn investment funds and Chief Executive Officer of Icahn Enterprises.
In a statement, Mr. Icahn said he was confident that the group had the "necessary skills to assist Motorola in executing on its recently announced, and long overdue, decision regarding the separation of its Mobile Devices business in a manner which will maximize value for all shareholders." Mr. Icahn held 5% of Motorola shares as of Jan. 31, up from 3.3% at the end of September, according to regulatory filings.
In an interview, Mr. Icahn said he thought shareholders would support his nominees this year. Last year, he failed in a similar effort to gain a seat on the board, reflecting shareholders' willingness to give the company more time to fix the ailing division, which contributed half of the company's $36 billion in sales last year.
Motorola's announcement1 Thursday that it would restructure the business hastens the need for the company to make a decision on whether to fix, sell, seek a joint venture for or spin off its handset division.
"Now that they've made this announcement, they have to move quickly, since this could cause a pretty big business disruption," said Mark McKechnie, telecom equipment analyst at American Technology Research. "Suppliers could be unwilling to do custom work for Motorola, customers could be concerned more about the future of the company rather than products, and employees may start sending out resumes rather than new products."
Write to Sara Silver at sara.silver@wsj.com2 |
