Motorola ready to shed handset business

Motorola has finally confirmed the rumours – the company is mulling spinning off its mobile unit. The company came out with the news yesterday, saying it “is exploring the structural and strategic realignment of its businesses to better equip its mobile devices business to recapture global market leadership and to enhance shareholder value”.

The handset business stuttered after the success and ultimately saturation of the Razr and Motorola has struggled to come up with something quite as market grabbing as the “thin is in” device ever since and the last quarter topped it off, when sales plummeted 38 percent.

This could be the radical move Moto needs to get its mobile unit back on its feet. The interesting question is though, if the unit is spun off – who will the likely owner be? There’s no immediate name in the frame. CNBC reports that negotiations are already underway with Dell, but that seems a bit of an unlikely union. Aside from the link of Ron Garriques – who left Moto to join Dell early last year – if Dell does have an interest in mobile, it would surely be smart devices, which Motorola has only produced a tiny handful of to date.