By Elizabeth Woyke – In mid-2008 Motorola was in trouble, and CEO Greg Brown was miserable. His mobile phone business was sagging, hurt by the Apple iPhone, and struggling to respond. The economy was sinking into recession. And he needed to figure out how to split up Motorola to placate shareholders like Carl Icahn.
With 82 years in the communications business the old Motorola produced many breakthroughs—like the first cellphone call, in 1973. But the company also made major blunders, almost completely missing the rise of smartphones, for instance, an oversight that set the stage for the financial struggles that led to the company’s split. more> http://tinyurl.com/3q25227
