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Motorola entraps Qualcomm’s Sanjay Jha
si Team
Monday, September 1, 2008
As a kid, Sanjay Jha had to wait for eight months to get a telephone connection to his house in a village in Bihar when his grandfather had applied for one. Today, 36 years later, Jha is reckoned as a mastermind in the wireless industry. And it is no wonder that Motorola, now under a do-or-die situation, snared him from Qualcomm to entrust its ailing mobile device business, given his expertise in the field. A deal potentially worth more than $35 million was agreed upon in this regard.

As Co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of its wireless-handset division that has reported business losses for six successive quarters, 45-year-old Jha has already started contemplating on how to take the firm through the crisis.

Jha, who earlier served as President of the Qualcomm division that made chips for cell phones, has strong opinions about the kind of chipset and software platforms Motorola should take advantage of. Though analysts called his appointment ‘a big win’ for Motorola and a loss for Qualcomm, the credibility of the newly appointed CEO of Motorola’s mobile device business is questionable. Motorola requires someone who has a better hold on the knowledge of consumer electronics, cutting supply chain costs, global retail and Jha doesn’t have much achievements to his credit in those spheres.

Starting at Qualcomm in 1994 as a senior engineer, he worked his way up to Chief Operating Officer in 2006. He was the top prospect to run Qualcomm’s chip business, which the company considered spinning off as it battled Nokia on multiple legal fronts. It was two weeks after the company’s settlement with Nokia put the spinoff on hold, Jha accepted the current offer.
The other Co-CEO of Motorola is Greg Brown, who is also the CEO of Motorola’s Broadband Mobility Solutions.

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