听力练习

Motorola's great divide

Under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, the company separates its mobile handset business

Bearking up is hard to do. Splitting up might be a little easier, especially if your company is facing intense pressure from a billionaire shareholder activist. That's the story this morning at Motorola, the giant cellphone manufacturer. The company is saying this morning that it'll separate its struggling handset unit from its other operations. The move might be a response to pressure from activist investor, Carl Icahn.

Icanhn owns nearly 6.5% of Motorola, and has been pressuring the company for quite sometime to split off that business. He's also sued Motorola this week in an attempt to investigate the company's strategy for improving its business, especially its handset business. Now sales of Motorola phones fell 38% in the fourth quarter of 2007, while nearly all of Motorola's competitors saw gains during that period.

Icanhn has been seeking four seats on Motorola's board and as of Tuesday the company offered Icanhn's investment firm two board seats, which Icanhn flatly rejected. Since Icanhn began agitating for a change at Motorola, several executives have stepped down from the company, including former CEO Ed. Zander, shares of Motorola are down 45% in the past year.

As for how the split will work, well, one business will focus exclusively on cellphone handsets, including Motorola's popular RAZR model, that business has been struggling due to market saturation, and competition from other players, including Apple with its Iphone ,also Nokia and Research Emotion with the Blackberry. The other business will focus on the fastest growing parts of Motorola's business, including network equipment, cable TV set top boxes, and also two-way radios.

We'll keep an eye on shares of Motorola for you throughout the day. You can get more information right here on our site, CNNmoney.com

Notes:

Split up:to splinter into separate parts

文本参考中文翻译

在积极分子投资者Carl Icahn的压力之下，摩托罗拉手机业务分裂。

一个公司要解散可能比较困难，但是要分裂可能就相对容易一点，尤其是在一个亿万富翁股东的紧张压力下。今天早上手机生产商巨头摩托罗拉就发生了这样的事。今天早上，该公司宣布将苦苦挣扎的手机业务从其他业务中分离出去。该举动可能是对积极分子投资者Carl Icahn频频施压的回应。

Icanhn持有摩托罗拉接近6.5%的股份，长期以来一直给公司施压，要求将手机业务分离出来。本周他控告摩托罗拉，试图调查公司提高业务能力的策略，尤其是手机业务方面。2007年第四季度，摩托罗拉销量下降38%，而同一时期，几乎所有竞争对手销量都有上涨。

Icanhn要求在摩托罗拉董事会享有四个席位，周二，摩托罗拉提供给Icanhn的投资公司两个董事会席位，遭其断然拒绝。自从Icanhn开始煽动摩托罗拉变动，已经有几名高级管理人员辞职，包括前CEOEd. Zander。摩托罗拉的股价去年下跌了45%。

至于该分裂以后怎样运作，会有一个部门集中专一负责手机业务，包括摩托罗拉非常流行的RAZR模型。由于市场饱和和其他竞争对手，比如Apple Iphone,Nokia和Blackberry，该手机一直状况不佳。另外一部分业务集中于摩托罗拉增长最快的业务，包括网络设备，有线电视和双向收音机。

接下来的时间我们会继续关注摩托罗拉的股票情况。可以登录我们的网站CNNmoney.com来了解更多信息。

Split up：分裂