» Activist Shareholders Seek to Bring Down Motorola’s Ed ZanderTelecommunications Industry News

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

Activist Shareholders Seek to Bring Down Motorola’s Ed Zander

6:00 am on July 18, 2007 | Category: Business, Cell Phones, Corporate

Just two months after beating back the advances of billionaire shareholder activist, Carl Icahn, the CEO of Motorola Inc. is being challenged once again.

This time it’s a small but growing group of 122 shareholders, who claim to represent approximately 600,000 shares in the company, that are circulating an online petition to have Motorola CEO, Ed Zander, removed from his position, along with four other board members.

A continued decline in Motorola’s revenue and profit, as well as reports that the company has slipped behind Samsung Electronics in the global handset market, are inciting a strong anti-Zander sentiment within the company.

“If you don’t see any improvement over the next couple of quarters, I think his days are numbered,” John Slack, a Wall Street analyst with Morningstar. “I think the catcalls and the cries for him to step down, or be fired, are only going to grow from here out.”

Ed Zander, 60, took control of Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola in 2004, and oversaw its impressive rise as the Motorola RAZR became the best selling mobile phone in North America, and later Europe. In recent quarters, however, RAZR sales have dropped off significantly, as have profit margins and overall market share.

Telecommunications Industry News