Motorola Announces Company Split
Today the struggling handset business Motorola (MOT) has announced it will split itself into two publicly traded companies in an effort to end the long landslide the stock has seen in the recent years.
Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor who has a history for making big changes happen has been the big backer for some sort of move from Motorola. The latest in his efforts is to gain control of four seats on the Motorola board, which has come with strong resistance.
Ever since the Razr phone became popular Motorola has struggled to find a follow up hit. Its mobile devices business was number 1 until Samsung Electronics took the top spot last year.
The company’s two main businesses will make up the two new publicly traded companies. One will be centered around Motorola’s handsets business and one will focus on its home and networks business.
Most analysts agree this is the best move for Motorola, and the deal is expected to close sometime in 2009.
Since March of 06 the stock has struggled to make any ground falling from $24 a share all the way down to $8.98 just last Thursday. Today the stock is trading up around $10 a share.
