Motorola names Sanjay Jha head of handset division
By PETER SVENSSON – 1 hour ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Motorola Inc. on Monday said it had snagged Sanjay Jha, the chief operating officer of Qualcomm Inc. and a star of the wireless industry, to head its handset division as it prepares to become an independent company.
Jha will also be co-chief executive of the parent company, sharing the responsibility with incumbent Greg Brown. Brown will take responsibility for Motorola's other two divisions.
Motorola shares rose 84 cents, or 9.5 percent, to $9.65 in morning trading.
Goldman Sachs analysts Simona Jankowski and Thomas Lee called the recruitment of Jha, who was also president of the Qualcomm division that made chips for cell phones, "a big win" for Motorola and a loss for Qualcomm.
"We believe he is very well respected both in industry and in the investor community," the analysts wrote. "From Motorola's perspective, we expect this will improve the company's competitive positioning faster than if an executive of lesser stature had been attracted as CEO."
Citigroup analyst Jim Suva concurred, writing that "We are hard-pressed to imagine a better candidate than Dr. Jha." Jha, 45, has a doctorate in electronic and electrical engineering.
Qualcomm shares fell $1.88, or 3.4 percent, to $53.59.
Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola's handset division has been posting heavy losses for the last few years. Brown has controlled the unit directly since early this year. Stu Reed, its last president, left the company in March.
Also in March, Motorola said it would split off the cell-phone division from the ones that make set-top boxes, cable modems, police radios and other telecommunications gear.
The handset unit had a smash hit with the Razr phone in 2004 and 2005, but has been unable to produce a follow-up of the same popularity. However, Motorola last week announced that it had reversed a trend of declining sales and shipped 28.1 million cell phones in the second quarter, up from 27 million in the first.
Motorola executives have emphasized the complex nature of the spin-off, saying that the handset unit shares 150 facilities with other units, and analysts have questioned whether it's worth the expense. Last week, Motorola said the process should be complete by the third quarter next year.
Jha will receive 3.7 million restricted Motorola stock units, worth approximately $35 million at Monday's stock price, and options to buy 16.6 million shares. If the spin-off of the handset division is completed, those awards would apply to the new company's stock, and Jha would receive additional stock and option awards to give him a 3 percent stake in the company.
If the spin-off does not happen before Oct. 31, 2010, Jha will get $30 million in cash.
At Qualcomm, executive vice president Len Lauer, formerly the chief operating officer of Sprint Nextel Corp., replaces Jha as COO. Jha's position as president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, or QCT, will be filled by the EVP of the unit, Steve Mollenkopf.
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The GigaOM Interview: Qualcomm COO Dr. Sanjay Jha
Stacey Higginbotham, Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 12:01 AM PT Comments (8)
Dr. Sanjay Jha , COO and president of its CDMA technologies division, is betting on mobile devices that are going to fill the gap between laptops and smart phones. Some call them cloud clients, some call them handhelds, while for others they’re ultra-portables.
Whatever the name, they are part of a new class of devices that represents technology’s next pot of gold. Intel is hoping to move into the ultra-mobile PC market with its Atom processor. Qualcomm isn’t going to make it easy for Intel, or so I gathered from a conversation with Dr. Jha at the CTIA show in Las Vegas. Here are the excerpts:
Me: What is the state of the 3G handset business? What are some of the trends you see right now?
Jha: This [3G] is a fairly robust business for us. Last year we shipped 176 million-odd handsets and devices and this year we’re projecting north of 270 million devices. So that’s very healthy growth in 3G for us. We see the growth in smart phones and we’re seeing a growth in services — messaging services — that the handset is not just about voice anymore, but also about email. That email is not just an enterprise play anymore; we’re seeing a lot of consumers who feel they need to be in email contact. We are in a space where computing and wireless mobility are converging.
Me: Beyond handsets, it seems Qualcomm is pretty high on Snapdragon. Can you tell us where you stand with Snapdragon?
Jha: We have a 1 GHz processor that runs at 500 mW. It is designed into 15 devices. Those devices are pocket-sized portable computers with 4-inch to 5-inch screens that will have a long battery life, broadband access and a fast processor that can surf the web and download attachments.
Me: When will these devices come out, and how does this compete with Intel’s Atom processors for ultra-mobile PCs?
Jha: Devices using Snapdragon will come out in the second half of this year, before or after Christmas. And I wouldn’t say we’re competing with Intel because we want to focus on a pocket-sized device that you can carry with you. Intel’s specifications for Atom are focused on a device with a 7-inch to 9-inch display.
Me: Isn’t this area similar to the Foleo product launched by Palm? Is the market ready for these devices?
Jha: I loved the Foleo. It had great software and was always connected, but it had a full keyboard. Our vision is similar, but our device is smaller. We think it still needs to be carried in your pocket. I think that device was closer to something like the Mac Air.
Me: What kind of software would run on the Snapdragon devices? BREW?
Jha: BREW is really for handsets. We see Windows Mobile or Linux as the software for this type of device. There are already so many types of programs already available on those platforms built for this category of products.
Me: Does this increased focus on the consumer and computing markets mean that Qualcomm could get back into being a device maker?
Jha: Well, never is strong word, but I don’t think we’d go down that path again.
Me: How do you know that Qualcomm is heading down the right path with regard to these ultra-mobile devices? What will be the signposts of success or failure that you will be looking for?
Jha: It’s easier to see when you’re successful, and I guess the trick is knowing when things aren’t going well. It may be easy to see after five years of things not going well, but I guess I will realize we’re not doing well if I’m doing the same thing I am doing now in five years.
Me: You’ve also mentioned the growth in wireless revenue coming from services. What role will Qualcomm play in the services side of the business?
Jha: We see mCommerce, where you can pay for things using your mobile phone; location-based services; and downloading content as being up-and-coming services. In the developed world, mCommerce may not be as big, but in the developing world, where everyone has a handset (and few credit cards), mCommerce is huge.
We will partner with providers, but want to provide an integrated platform on which to deliver those services. For example, with sending money over a mobile phone, security is huge. We want to make it possible to do that across carriers and across banks. |
