“Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc said Friday that Chief Executive Ed Zander will step down on Jan. 1 and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Greg Brown,” Ritsuko Ando and Jim Finkle report for Reuters.
“Zander, who said he plans to spend more time with his family, will continue to serve as chairman until an annual meeting of stockholders in May 2008,” Ando and Finkle report.
Full article here.
The Associated Press reports, “Last month, Motorola reported a 94 percent drop in third-quarter profit… The cell-phone unit, Motorola’s biggest, saw quarterly sales plunge 36 percent to $4.5 billion and recorded an operating loss of $138 million. That was nearly $1 billion worse than a year ago but only about half the $264 million loss of the second quarter.”
Full article here.
Motorola’s press release, in which Zander states, “This is the right time for me to move on to the next phase in my life and spend more time with my family,” is here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “MrKruser” and “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
“Spend more time with my family.” Classic.
Motorola Chairman and CEO Ed Zander says his company is ready for competition from Apple’s iPhone, due out next month. “How do you deal with that?” Zander was asked at the Software 2007 conference Wednesday in Santa Clara, Calif. Zander quickly retorted, “How do they deal with us?” – IDG News Service, May 10, 2007
Another iPhone victim?
The classic tail-between-the-leg CEO punking out explanation. Zander couldn’t handle the heat and got out of the kitchen.
Verizon should be next. Look at the Voyage and from a distance its a complete knock off the look of the iPhone home screen. You gotta love how they advertise it as Touch Screen simply to fool buyers. Touch screen yeah right… I’d love to see them do a commercial the same way Apple does and still call it a touch screen.
Motorola was once a customer of mine, fifteen years back. Even then the smell of death accorded the constant retraction of facilities, and personnel that was always going on.
It was singularly depressing place.
Well, if they had played a little nicer with Apple…
Moto crossed.
Lots of CEO’s are “retiring”, it has to do with the upcoming recession brought on by the downturn in the credit/housing market.
Time for new blood and ambition.
Did you know the success of a civilization/country has to do with the males having exactly the right level of testosterone?
Too much and they are violent, unlikely to remain stable enough to build up a country.
Too little and they are too passive to take challenges and make the changes necessary to insure success.
Strange but true.
That’s a little more blood on the multi touch screen.
Sounds like he’s a republican. This is a republican excuse for stepping down from office after they f-up. “plans to spend more time with his family”
careful, guys
Mr Zander could also have some nasty health matter, so tread carefully. Remember Chairman Steve’s pancreatic cancer.
Anyhoo, things look good for Apple’s business plan for phones.
dd
Careful, geoman. Political corruption is not limited to any one party. Start that kind of crap here and a very, very long list of Democrat malfeasance will come flaming at you. Let’s keep this about technology, not politics, OK?
As for the Verizon Voyager, when is Apple going to sue these knock-off makers and defend its much ballyhooed patents?
Randian,
No disrespect, but a) I don’t ever recall anyone appointing you as a moderator and b) it’s interesting that – now the Republicans are having a pretty tough time walking and chewing gum simultaneously – that the right wing-nuts want to stop Democrats and independents from using MDN to poke a little fun at the right.
I believe this is what’s known as “turnabout is fair play” or “karmic payback”; four years ago – at the start of the last Presidential election cycle – you couldn’t move on this site without encountering a thread that had been hijacked by Bushbots. Even worse, there was a lot of quite intimidating verbal bullying with Democrat/left-leaning contributors being called “fags”, “hippies”, “terrorist-lovers” and much, much more.
I’m sure if you post a flame regarding Democrat malfeasance that someone around here (perhaps even me) may have a list that is even more embarrassing for Republicans, so lighten up; I’m sure you’re right that Democrats have used the same excuse in the past, but – at the moment – the right-wing is in the West Wing so the focus will obviously be on their actions.
Yes, let’s not get into political mudslinging. Sadly enough, corruption is no respecter of position nor party. To believe otherwise is an ignorant and unsupportable position that incriminates only the fool who dares utter such.
Goodbye Moto.
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Motorolla is a company whose assets have long been squandered by it CEO and board. Its been one of those companies that started off with the integrity needed to produce the technology people wanted, but it attracted too many corporate sharks whose one and only concern was to milk the company for profits at the expense of all else.
The same thing was happening to Apple after Steve left the first time. We saw how quickly the “suits” drove a thriving company into the ground. Steve came back and to prove his integrity, accepted an annual salary of $1. How many American CEO are willing to do that?
The irony is that the “boys club” doesn’t see or is incapable of understanding that a company is built on principles and if your principle is to squeeze out as much money as you can and then move on to the next corporation, your business will die.
As in Dell. Michael, sell the company and give the profits back to the shareholders.
No-one comes here to read politics, left or right. We come here to read about Macs, not to have every thread hijacked by people pushing their pet causes or writing multi-paragraph posts on how much you hate or love politician XYZZY. I’m burned out, and call me an early warning system, but as we head into the ’08 elections, more and more people are going to get sick of people like you who inject politics at every opportunity. I don’t want to spend my time turning every thread into a phyrric battle. Why do you? I’m burned out.
You don’t have the right to hijack threads and derail conversation simply because you can’t stop talking about politics. You have a problem, but MDN is not your therapist’s office. Get help.
One down, a couple more to go. Next would be the Universal Chairblob……….
We have to keep Ballmer in his position though.
Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered
Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered
Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered Beleaguered
You guys are ridiculous. Buy a dictionary and try out some new words.
Face, you are obviously a Mac newbie and don’t understand the humor of “beleagured”.
Us Mac oldtimers remember a time when Apple was beleagured in every single review.
Too bad Motorola board kept this turkey onboard for so long. Motorola, another great American brand name, run into the ground by idiots at the top. Idiot is a bit strong I guess, he did manage to milk the company for big dollars as CEO so he must know something.
But it’s sure not cell phones, try an iPhone next to a Razr and you’ll see why Razr’s are free and iPhones are $399. Motorola stood back pissing there lead down the shitter and now look at them. Good bye Moto.
Go somewhere else to discuss politics. It seems pretty unanimous.
Too bad about Motorola. They had a great foothold in the market with the Razr, but they just couldn’t seem to think past that initial concept. Each successive Razr introduced less differences than the last. If they had really introduced innovation while using that trusted name “Razr” they might have recovered some lost ground or even revived their company altogether.
Face & Reality Check:
You’re probably a little too young to remember this, but it was back in the mid and late-90s that any article on Apple had the word “beleaguered” as an adjective in it.
Even the good news.
So that’s why Mac users are so quick to use that word when referring to other companies in trouble.
Reality Check: Is “beleaguered” the only adjective the “journalists” on this site know?
first off, no one in his or her right mind should ever confuse MDN for journalists, or “journalists” for that matter. This site is to Mac users as Fox News is to republicans, except the bias is right there in the title.
Second, having fun with the word beleaguered is part of the Mac user’s bill of rights. Sort of like calling people fags if you are gay (NTTAWWT). It both pays tribute to one’s oppressed past, and celebrates one’s new found freedoms.
Finally, lighten up Francis.
Zander was chosen by Clinton to serve on his business advisory panel back when.
It would have been more interesting if he had said it was in order to spend more time with his mistress.
It’s funny how if you repeat something enough times it somehow becomes truth to many dems. Fox News is biased or Fox News is republican. Take a look at all the ex-Democrats on your other MSM stations…. George Stephanopolus…Chris Mathews….Tim Russert, etc. And the latest from former ABC anchor Carol Simpson. All democrats….in fact 90% vote democrat.
So, enough with the BS about Fox. Fox News may seem biased to many Democrats because they don’t spout the same party line agenda found at the other stations. So, if “one of these things is not like the other”, then your bias is evident.
Bye take care
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