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Moto’s Brown has millions of reasons to see cell phone spinoff

Motorola Inc.’s co-CEO Gregory Brown has plenty of incentive to see the company’s phone business spun of as a public company.

According to a new three-year employment agreement signed Wednesday, Brown will receive options to buy stock valued at $3.33 million and restricted stock worth $1.67 million if the phone business is spun off into a company with a market value of at least $2 billion.

Such a valuation seems easily achievable for a company expected to do $13 billion in annual sales in each of the next two years. Motorola currently has a market value of $21.5 billion.

Brown, who shares CEO duties with Sanjay Jha, heads the non-phone businesses at Motorola, which are expected to continue as a separate public company. Brown’s salary remains at $1.2 million, with a target bonus of $2.6 million, and long-term compensation targets of $4.2 million this year, unchanged from the agreement announced when he took over the CEO job from Edward Zander in January.

John Pletz is a reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business, a sister publication to RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.

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