Motorola announced last month that it wants to sell its mobile phone unit, which is ranked third in global market share, according to Engadget.
No one’s buying. This month, several companies including Samsung and Dell have announced that they are not interested in laying out US$9 to 12 billion for the business.
It’s a bit of a shock. The Motorola brand name is well known, and the company has remained competitive. Certainly some up-and-coming manufacturer would want that nameplate! It’s the kind of play that made sense a few years ago, when Chinese manufacturer Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal computer business, including the ThinkPad name.
Motorola executives backpedaled last week at the Mobile World Congress, announcing that the company remains committed to the mobile handset industry.
Last Monday, Microsoft purchased Danger, the developer of T-Mobile’s Sidekick line. Om Malik estimated that Microsoft paid US$500 million for a mobile handset line that has a decent market share among the under-30 crowd.
Tags: ceo, Dell, EU, Microsoft, mobile, Motorola, Samsung, Sidekick, T-Mobile
