Now Hear This!

More of Motorola’s executives have exited the struggling company with the Wall Street Journal reporting this morning that Larry R. Raymond has replaced Steve Strobel as treasurer and that Stephen Nolan will oversee mobile devices in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), taking over the responsibilities from Mike Fenger.

Raymond is a private-equity exec who also held considerable tenure at Sears Roebuck and Co. Raymond’s appointment follows a similar move by Moto last month when it named Paul J. Liska, a private-equity exec who had also spent time at Sears Roebuck, as CFO. Nolan, meanwhile, was Motorola’s VP of sales for continental Europe prior to this most recent executive shuffle at the Schaumburg, Ill-based company.

According the WSJ, "the leadership changes are part of an overall plan to swiftly transform the senior executive team" at Moto. Indeed, the first three months of 2008 have marked major management changes at Moto. In addition to the CFO change and today’s changes, Ed Zander announced his resignation late last year and Greg Brown took over as CEO in January. Zander’s exit announcement was quickly followed by news that Padmasree Warrior, a top tech mind at Moto who is largely credited for the company’s Razr success, had left for Cisco. 
 
Normally such large scale executive changes are like a flashing neon sign pointing to poor upcoming financials, but unless you’ve been living in some ludite state for the last few quarters, you didn’t need such a sign. In just the last few weeks, Wall Street raider Carl Icahn has upped his stake in the company as he continues to pound on Moto’s boardroom doors for profits, and the company announced it is considering selling its mobile devices business, a major source of concern and losses. And this morning, Moto’s stock marked a new $9.12 52-week low.

It wasn’t so long ago that Moto was a shining star of the industry, introducing hot, must haves like its Razr handset. Brown has initiated attempts to recover, and his habit of looking for cost-cutter execs from the private equity realm has not gone unnoticed, but are the days of Moto technology advances and the accompanying profits lost forever? As Moto attempts to dig itself out of the deep, dark hole its finds itself in, continue to expect management changes, losses, and angry stockholders. Share your thoughts on Motorola below. 

--Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News