Motorola's handheld self abuse continues
Language gets more colourful as CFO prepares for court
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Associated Press has been going over documents concerning the suit filed by Motorola's former Chief Financial Officer, providing more details of Paul Liska's accusation that he was given the elbow for blowing the whistle on the company's finances.
The filing details how Paul Liska gave a presentation to a board subcommittee on January 28th, during which he revealed just how bad things were in the handset division, a revelation that he alleges got him fired. The company that fired him claims he set the whole thing up as a scam to extract money.
The suit, as explained by AP, doesn't contain the complete presentation - commercially sensitive parts are blacked out - but it shows that Mr. Liska explained that Motorola's mobile-phone division had missed expectations for the last three months, and that the projections for the rest of the year were very optimistic. He also pointed out that things were not improving, in a thinly-veiled dig at Sanjey Jha, who's been tasked with working a minor miracle on the department.
What Mr.Liska didn't know was that immediately prior to his presentation the board had been in session with Dr. Jha, seeing the latest technologies that were going to turn the business round in time for Christmas. Anyone who's worked in the industry will know how easily executives are swayed by shiny toys, so criticism of the miracle-worker was probably poorly timed.
The company is claiming that Paul Liska was already on his way out, that his performance had deteriorated since Dr. Jha was appointed and that he never got on with the good doctor. According to that version, the presentation was deliberately inflammatory in order to provide grounds for a suit.
Mr. Liska, obviously, claims he's been pilloried for revealing the truth - though it seems hard to believe the board could be unaware of how badly the mobile division is operating when it keeps dragging the company to its knees.
Since the filing, in February, Motorola has stated in a regulatory filing that Paul Liska was fired from his job "for cause", a term which can cover a multitude of sins and which is a potentially career-destroying entry on the CV. Not that he'll get much of a reference from a company that describes him, in court documents, as "a caustic personality, a disloyal foe out to harm the company".
None of this is going to sell any mobile phones, or help the company find any other solution to it's dire position, even if it is hugely entertaining for the rest of us. ®
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COMMENTS
Moto-who?
Motorola phones build quality? who cares?! Did that win them market share?
There was a time when they had HUGE market share, and they've lost out. Repeatedly. There was a time when their main competitors were Nokia and Ericson. Now look at it!
If they are so great at building quality products, then it just proves that the market aren't interested in that and they buy for *other* reasons - I'll let others fill in that gap...
The guy pointed out the obvious, and got fired... if Motorola cant find a legally justified reason for firing him, and show that they acted in accordance with the relevant employment law, they are screwed.
"he was on his way out from before"? no sh1t Einstein: no doubt the good-doctor shared his plans on what would turn the company around last year and he was told the bleeding obvious! So the relationship went down hill from the start of the stupid ideas from the "good doctor"!
See for yourselves - the companys handset division wasn't saved!!
Bill - as he knows all about maintaining market share, and not getting fired.
@Conrad
Clearly you don't understand the key difference between MOTO and anyone else's phones (like Nokia, Samsung, LG, HTC, E-Ten and so on, don't even mind other Chinese crap like ZTE or Huawei) -- it's in build quality and materials used.
Just try and compare a cheap-plastik soapbox-like Nokia shit^H^H^H^Hphone to e.g. MOTO ZINE ZN5
Doomed
Motorola's product lineup outside of the handset division is fairly sound, lots of infrastructure and industrial kit that is really pretty good.
But, as the article says, the handset division is bringing the company to its knees. What has Motorola's response been? The Motorola AURA?? Motorola keep promising jam tomorrow when it comes to new launches, but nothing interesting is in the pipeline. Maybe we'll see an Android handset later this year. Maybe not. Will anyone care?
Frankly they would be better off shutting down the whole mobile division and outsourcing anything they need to the likes of HTC, ZTE or Huawei.
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