New synergies and new plan, but is Motorola’s wireless networking business still for sale?

The conference call was late in the day Thursday and it was all about a reorganisation strategy. Motorola will break itself into two independent companies in the first quarter 2011 - one company will include its mobile handset and cable set-top box businesses, the other will include its enterprise mobility solutions and wireless networks businesses.

At least the new plan resolves years of speculation and what seems like continuous internal evaluation as Motorola tried to figure out what to do with its assortment of unrelated product lines - some more valuable than others. Until just a few weeks ago, it was pursuing a well-known plan to spin off its handset business. Now it plans to pursue a mobility, media and Internet convergence strategy for the new company containing its set-top box and mobile handset business because it believes there is synergy between the two product lines and that the services and software it is developing for its smartphone line can play a key role in creating a multi-screen experience for customers.

The enterprise mobility and wireless networks business will include the company’s two-way radio, mobile computers, public safety systems, RFID and wireless network infrastructure businesses.

A curious twist is that the wireless network business was considered up for sale until earlier in the day. Thursday morning’s Wall Street Journal, in an article anticipating the creation of the new handset/set-top box business, said that the Motorola was staging a second-round bidding phase for the wireless networking business. The paper indicated that the Chinese infrastructure firm, Huawei, was interested in buying the business.