More execs leave Motorola, with mobile spinoff likely

With more and more execs marching through Motorola's revolving door, a spinoff of Motorola's mobile phone business seems increasingly imminent -- although it's unclear yet who might buy the failing business unit, or for how much.

Motorola's most recent departures include Stu Reed, who had headed up Motorola's Mobile Devices Unit, and Kenneth "Casey" Keller, who'd been in charge of Motorola's marketing.

Although Motorola announced Reed's departure on Friday, its new CEO Greg Brown had actually relieved Reed of his duties in Mobile Devices in early February.

"We appreciate Stu's many contributions to Motorola and wish him the best in the future," Brown said on Friday in a written statement.

Reed, though, had only run the Mobile Devices unit for a few months, and that was after Motorola started losing share to other handset makers within the declining market of mobile phones.

These two exits follow the ousting of Ed Zander as CEO last year and the subsequent resignation of Padmasree Warrior as CTO.

Reed, who succeeded Zander, has given clear signs of going along with the desires of Carl Icahn, Motorola's major investor, to restructure the company and sell at least some of the pieces.

In a press release on January 31, Motorola announced a "strategic realignment of its businesses to better equip its Mobile Devices business for global market leadership and to enhance shareholder value."

But Motorola's move came as no surprise to some industry analysts. In a note to clients prior to the announcement, Richard Windsor, an analyst for Nomura International, predicted that Motorola might decide to refocus on becoming what he called an "enterprise and government company."