Motorola has been fighting hard to reestablish itself as the giant mobile phone maker it once was. The new wave of Android phones – like the Motorola Droid and Devour – prove that Moto’s well on its way back to prominence, but the company’s fight is a long way from over. As such, co-CEOs Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha have voluntarily agreed to take a 25% pay cut for 2010. The move will have the Motorola co-chiefs continuing salary reductions made in 2009.
Motorola’s proxy statement, filed with the SEC yesterday, confirms that the two execs are giving up a 25% chunk of their annual salary of their own free will. They’ll be making $900,000 instead of the $1.2 million base salary from 2008. Even with the pay cuts, though, Jha isn’t hurting for money. In 2008, Jha was declared the top-paid exec in the US, thanks to the $104.4 million he took home in (mostly) performance-based stocks and options.
With solid plans to divide Motorola up into two separate publicly traded entities, and compelling new smartphones powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system, Motorola is poised to make their long-awaited comeback in the mobile space. Sometime in early 2011, Sanjay Jha will take his seat at the head of the Mobile Devices and Home Businesses division, while Greg Brown takes the reigns of the Motorola Enterprise unit.
Motorola has proven that they still have what it takes to be a formidable player in the smartphone space, but the long-term success of the handset maker will be largely dependent on their ability to continue to capture mindshare in the US and around the world. The Motorola Droid is a good first step, but it’s not going to be enough to carry Moto through the next year. Nexus Two, anyone?
[Via: paidContent]