The Industry Standard - Motorola finds buyer for handset business - Comments

Ack, missed that the judging

Bradley Baker — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:31:10 -0700

Ack, missed that the judging date was a week after the close date.

Oh well, guess that money'll stay locked up for a bit. Hopefully nothing goes "wrong" and Motorola decides to sell rather than split.

The news on this has gone

Eric Hill812251 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:49:43 -0700

The news on this has gone very quiet. While it still seems like a very viable option to me, the time frame was probably too aggressive (that seems to be the hardest thing to predict in most cases). Nevertheless, per the prediction's rules, this will be judged on Thursday, May 1st.

Ouch.

Bradley Baker — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:57:02 -0700

Ouch.

"The once-proud company

Eric Hill812251 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:16:00 -0700

"The once-proud company reported horrible earnings today, with sales down 21 percent and a net loss of $194 million. But the big takeaway was the 39 percent collapse in its mobile phone business. Mobile device revenues in the quarter dropped $2.1 billion compared to last year." -- Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch

Motorola to split handsets

Aaron Frias — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:48:24 -0700

Motorola to split handsets into own co.
AP - 2 hours, 1 minute ago
CHICAGO - Motorola Inc. announced plans to separate its struggling handset business from other operations Wednesday, forming two separate, publicly traded companies after months of agitation from frustrated investors.

If you're smart, you'll bet against this prediction before it is closed.

The split was announced

Eric Hill812251 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:08:00 -0700

The split was announced today.

Motorola finds buyer for handset business

Ben Silverman — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:32:36 -0800

Judgment: This did not occur, which the community predicted properly. Judged at S$0. --The Industry Standard

On January 31st, 2008, Motorola announced that it will explore strategic alternatives for its Mobile Devices (handset) business, including the possible sale or separation of the unit.

The announcement came just weeks after Motorola said its share of the global handset market fell from 23% at the end of 2006 to just 13% at the end of 2007. Investors, led by Carl Icahn, have been pushing the company to dump the unit in some manner.

A spin-off of the unit would most likely receive a lukewarm response from investors, thus a sale is more likely. During the next three months (through the end of April 2008), will Motorola find a buyer for its handset unit?