Moto raids Qualcomm for handset leadership: Sanja Jha to lead firm’s handset biz

Sanjay Jha, formerly COO at Qualcomm Inc., will lead efforts at Motorola Inc. to turn around the beleaguered company’s handset division, the companies said today.
Jha will be co-CEO of Motorola, alongside current CEO Greg Brown, and CEO of the handset division. Brown was named CEO of the company’s broadband mobility solutions division, which covers the home and networks mobility and enterprise mobility businesses.
The news, coming on the heels of a small second-quarter profit at Motorola, sent the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company’s stock up nearly 10% by late morning. Last week, the company’s stock rose 12% on the news that it had posted a $4 million profit, on the heels of several quarters of financial losses.
The announcement this morning was “a huge surprise,” said analyst Mark McKechnie at American Technology Research, in a note to investors. “Motorola is getting a leader with great technical background, industry experience and business savvy. We think (Jha) is a very good choice to lead Motorola into the smartphone transition.”
McKechnie said that Jha’s lack of branding and marketing know-how would be offset by his technical prowess. The analyst called the move “a small setback” for Qualcomm, but noted the depth of executive talent at the San Diego-based chip and IPR licensing company. The analyst raised the possibility of closer ties between the two companies.
No quick fixes
Analyst Maynard Um at UBS sounded a cautionary note.
“We continue to believe (that) turning the tide for Motorola will take time and new product portfolios,” Um wrote in a note to investors today. “(There’s) still a tough road ahead. But investors may have more confidence in the probability of turning the business around.”
Len Lauer, a Qualcomm executive VP, has been promoted to COO at Qualcomm, the company said. Lauer formerly served as COO at Sprint Nextel Corp. Steve Mollenkopf has been promoted to president of QCT (Qualcomm CDMA Technologies), Qualcomm’s chip division, from executive VP at the unit.
Motorola said last week that it still intended to spin off its handset division as a separately traded entity from its other businesses in a year from now. Analysts have emphasized – and Motorola has acknowledged – that the plan is rife with complexity, from the need to separate personnel, shared facilities and research-and-development efforts to financial matters, including the assignment of debt and cash reserves to the separate entities.
Motorola’s CEO Greg Brown told Crain’s Chicago Business last week that the use of the Motorola brand – and whether it will travel with the spun-off handset unit – remains under discussion.
Brown also said that the company would launch twice as many handsets in the next two quarters – including a touchscreen product – as it had in the first half of the year.
In addition to his role of COO at Qualcomm, Jha had been group president of QCT and led that group for the past four years. Jha holds a Ph.D. in electronic and electrical engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland and a B.S. in engineering from the University of Liverpool.