Considering their track record, Motorola's announcement that they are looking to restructure their handset shouldnt be a surprise, and yet, this takes the cake for this once proud company. The timing simply couldnt be worse. The division is bleeding money, the capital markets are closed, and we are likely entering a recession. It will be impossible for Motorola to extract any value out of a transaction.
Why not wait until after the glimmers of a turnaround have been established? In addition to Kodak, Freescale also confirmed that Motorola's new platform is on track for a summer release. The only explanation is very ugly indeed....the internal schedules for the platform release must be much worse than those given by their suppliers or those expected by the Street. An '09 release for new products would mean the losses in the mobile division would reach truly horrendous proportions during the Christmas quarter.
So take your pick, either Motorola's management has created a new standard for "selling low" or the platform group is going to need at least another six months to complete a turn around that was supposed to have occurred over a year ago. An ugly choice indeed.
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