Motorola Reorganizes Mobile Devices Unit Executive Staff

Motorola has a new way to halt the executive exodus at its Mobile Devices unit: It's giving promotions to a group of executives and reorganizing the operation in anticipation of its spin-off next year.

Rob Shaddock, a senior VP who had directed the unit's features phones, including its hit RAZR, was named head of consumer products. Shaddock also is expected to coordinate software and hardware operations in the handset unit, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Steve Lalla, a corporate VP, will oversee mass-market phones.

The Mobile Devices operation, once the leading global handset supplier, has been racked in recent quarters by a rapid decline in market share. The company's handsets now are delivered in numbers lower than phones marketed by Nokia, Samsung, and LG Electronics.

In an effort to stanch the market-share loss, chief executive Greg Brown took over direct control of Mobile Devices and has been working much of the time at the unit's Libertyville, Ill., headquarters. The new executive shuffling is aimed at preparing for a new Mobile Devices CEO, who is expected to be onboard before the company breaks into a least two operations to appease investment banking analysts and large stockholder Carl Icahn, who has been agitating for a Motorola breakup for more than a year.

The management changes were announced internally earlier this week. Motorola is scheduled to announce its first-quarter financial results next week. Its annual stockholders' meeting is scheduled to take place on May 5.