NEW YORK — Motorola, the 82-year-old consumer electronics pioneer responsible for early televisions, cell phones and even the first broadcast from the moon, split into two companies Tuesday in a reflection of changing markets.
As separate companies — Mobility, targeting consumers, and Solutions, for professionals — the two will have simpler stories to tell investors and a nimbler approach to developing cutting-edge products such as tablet computers.
Sanjay Jha, CEO of the consumer-focused Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., said in an interview that the new company will benefit from a narrower focus, all the way up to the top management and the board of directors.
“I think you’ll see a board that is much more focused on understanding technology as opposed to managing a portfolio of products,” Jha said.
For decades, Motorola Inc.’s products told the story of the march of electronics into the hands of consumers: car radios in the 1930s, TVs in the 1940s and cell phones starting the 1980s.
The company also expanded into police radios and barcode scanners aimed at government agencies and large businesses. These divisions complicated the picture Motorola painted for investors; now, they make up the second company, Motorola Solutions Inc.
With the breakup comes a shrunken bureaucracy, which both companies hope will help them make faster decisions and compete better in the marketplace.
Especially in the consumer business, Motorola can’t afford to take its time incubating new products while subsisting on revenue from other divisions, Jha said.
Dan Maloney, Mobility’s president, also said a smaller company that excels at just a few things might spur employees to be more creative.
“Inside Motorola, it was difficult at times for employees to understand how what they were doing was going to directly have an impact on financial performance because it was such a large, multi-faceted entity,” he said.
In a statement, Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown looked forward to similar benefits.
“The separation gives us increased strategic flexibility and the opportunity to focus on this part of the portfolio with clarity, purpose and management focus,” Brown said.
As part of the breakup, Motorola is selling its cellular network equipment division to Nokia Siemens Networks, a Finnish-German joint venture. Regulators in China are still reviewing the $1.2 billion sale, which is expected to close in the next three months.
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