Motorola shareholders blast board, execs' pay

Motorola's shareholders lambasted company executives and board members at their annual meeting Monday, accusing the officials of not earning their lucrative pay and failing to give clear direction that a split into two companies will improve matters.

"Motorola lacks marketing," one shareholder said. "We've got the technology."

Said another, "The board did a terrible job. It's appalling and you should be ashamed."

CEO Greg Brown, presiding at his first Motorola shareholder meeting at the Rosemont Theater, conceded that fiscal 2007 was "a punishing year," but said the company is on the right track.

Motorola suffered a 15 percent sales drop in fiscal 2007, to $36.6 billion, with a net earnings loss of $49 million. For mobile devices, the full year sales were 33 percent lower than 2006 and the segment incurred an operating loss of $1.2 billion, compared to operating earnings of $2.7 billion in 2006.

Brown said the Schaumburg-based company intends to focus more on consumer-friendly wireless products and to extend leadership of its home and network and enterprise mobility divisions.

Speaking of shareholder activist Carl Icahn, with whom Motorola reached an agreement prior to the shareholders' meeting to put two Icahn nominees on the board, Brown said, "Along with other large shareholders, we're aligned with a sense of urgency to maximize shareholder value, with a consumer- and product-led recovery, and creating two independent businesses that will unlock value."