August 4th, 2008
Motorola names Qualcomm alum mobile CEO
Motorola on Monday named Sanjay Jha CEO of its mobile handset division, which is in the process of being split from the rest of the company.
Jha had been the chief operating officer of Qualcomm. He was responsible for overseeing Qualcomm’s R&D and Flarion Technologies. Ahead of the spin-off of the mobile division at Motorola, Jha will serve as Motorola’s co-CEO with Greg Brown.
Under the co-CEO arrangement (statement) Jha will be responsible for Motorola mobile devices division and report to the board. Brown will oversee the company’s home and networks mobility and broadband mobility divisions. In other words, Brown and Jha have split the company as if they are independent and the actual separation will be a formality.
Jha, 45, brings technical expertise to Motorola and with any luck will have some design chops too. Motorola is in dire need of hits beyond its aging Razr. Jha said his goal is to turn the handset division into a company that will “continue to innovate and grow for years to come.”
Motorola said it will file Jha’s employment package details with the SEC, but hasn’t yet.
Last week Motorola reported a small profit excluding charges. The company’s second quarter was fueled by the divisions that Brown will lead in the future. The handset division maintained its No. 3 spot in the market share rankings by shipping 28.1 million handsets, but lost money. Jha’s division had second quarter sales of $3.3 billion, down 22 percent from a year ago, with an operating loss of $346 million.
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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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