Motorola Names Qualcomm COO to Head Cell Phone Division

Motorola today named Sanjay Jha, Qualcomm's former chief operating officer, to head its mobile devices business. Jha will also be co-chief executive of the parent company, sharing the responsibility with incumbent Greg Brown. Brown will take responsibility for Motorola's other two divisions.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola's handset division has been posting heavy losses for the last few years. The handset unit had a smash hit with the RAZR phone in 2004 and 2005, but has been unable to produce a follow-up of the same popularity.

Jha will receive 3.7 million restricted Motorola stock units, worth approximately $35 million at Monday's stock price, and options to buy 16.6 million shares. If the spin-off of the handset division is completed, those awards would apply to the new company's stock, and Jha would receive additional stock and option awards to give him a 3 percent stake in the company.

If the spin-off does not happen before Oct. 31, 2010, Jha will get $30 million in cash.

At Qualcomm, executive vice president Len Lauer, formerly the chief operating officer of Sprint Nextel, replaced Jha as COO. Jha's position as president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, or QCT, will be filled by the EVP of the unit, Steve Mollenkopf.

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