Motorola names new cell phone chief

Tag : mobile cdma phone

On Monday, the company announced that Sanjay Jha will be co-chiefexecutive and head of the mobile-device business. Motorola saidearlier this year that it will separate the mobile-device business from the rest of thecompany . And since the split was announced, it had been searching forsomeone to head up the division.
Greg Brown, who only came on board as Motorola's chief executive late last year, will act as co-CEO. Brown will head up thecompany's broadband network division.
Jha, 45, is a smart choice for Motorola, as it tries to turn aroundits cell phone business. For the past 14 years, Jha has been atcell phone chipmaker Qualcomm, where he most recently ran thecompany's CDMA division. Qualcomm's CEO, Paul Jacobs, wished himwell in a press release, saying Jha had been instrumental inhelping Qualcomm become "the No. 1 wireless semiconductorsupplier."
Jha will certainly have his work cut out for him. Over the pastyear and a half, the company has lost market share and seen its stock price plummet amid heavylosses as it struggles to find a hit product to replace the Razr. Lastyear, it fell from the world's second-largest supplier of handsetsto third.
Last week, Motorola surprised Wall Street with a small profit for the second quarter. But the company's handset divisioncontinued to drag on earnings. Most of the gains in the secondquarter came from cost cutting and from its Internet and cablebusinesses. Still, the company managed to hang on to its marketshare position, a surprising result, as many analysts had expectedNo. 1 Nokia and No. 2 Samsung to pick up share.
Now Motorola is looking toward the future. The company is expectedto release several new phones, including ones with touch screens,in time for this year's holiday season. The hope is that these newproducts can help put new life into the company's tired devicelineup. And with Jha at the helm of the mobile-device unit, thecompany can move forward with the planned split, which is expectedto be complete in the third quarter of 2009.