Motorola technology chief leaves
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc (MOT.N), which announced last week that Chief Executive Ed Zander will step down, said on Monday its chief technology officer, Padmasree Warrior, had left the company to pursue other opportunities.
The company's strategy chief, Rich Nottenburg, will be responsible for Motorola's technology leadership, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson, who did not say if Warrior, 47, was leaving voluntarily. She had worked at Motorola for 23 years.
Motorola, which has been losing market share to rivals such as Nokia (NOK1V.HE) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and posted two quarterly losses this year, has been criticized for failing to come up with a strong follow-up to its flagship Razr phone, which was launched in late 2004.
Its chief financial officer and the head of its mobile device business left earlier this year. Zander's planned succession by Chief Operating Officer Greg Brown on Jan 1. comes amid pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn.
American Technology Research analyst Mark McKechnie, who was a Motorola employee in the 1980s, said the departure was not surprising in light of Motorola's recent difficulties.
"Any time you have a new CEO there's always a bit of a changing of the guard," he said, adding that he knew of several talented engineers who had left the company recently.
"There's some really good talent that has left," he said.
Chief technology officers in each of Motorola's three business units will be in charge of commercializing product development, according to Erickson. Aside from mobile phones Motorola also makes set-top boxes and network equipment.
Erickson said Motorola had begun to realign its technology organization ahead of Warrior's departure.
Motorola shares, which have lost about one-third of their value in the last year, closed down 54 cents, or 3.4 percent, at $15.43 on New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Phil Berlowitz)
