托罗拉公司(Motorola Inc.)正在试图通过分拆提高其价值，不过迄今为止，这些努力却产生了相反的效果。

三周前，这家电信设备公司宣布考虑出售或剥离旗下陷入困境的移动设备子公司，但目前尚没有买家出现。诺基亚(Nokia Corp.)、三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co.)和LG电子(LG Electronics Inc.)等手机巨头都表示不感兴趣，分析师曾预计会有所动作的消费电子产品公司也都按兵不动。这打击了摩托罗拉的股价。

无人问津的事实也在改变着分析师和投资者对这家摩托罗拉子公司的看法。一些人认为，原来这家子公司面临的可能只是需要更快推出新产品的问题，但现在看来，它还有许多难以解决的问题。

Oppenheimer & Co.分析师伊泰•基德隆(Ittai Kidron)认为，对外公布对移动业务的意图并未让摩托罗拉更易于找到解决方案，反而令摩托罗拉对该业务的承诺招致更多质疑。他对摩托罗拉股票的评级为强于大盘。

中国设备制造商中兴通讯(ZTE Corp.)曾表示有意与摩托罗拉进行更为广泛的合作。但本周由于一起不相关交易的破灭，这种良好前景也蒙上了阴影。中国的华为技术有限公司(Huawei Co.)和Bain Capital Partners LLC曾寻求收购美国网络技术提供商3Com Corp。但由于政治压力，它们取消了向一个美国国家安全小组提出的审批申请。这对有意投资摩托罗拉另一部门的中兴通讯来说不是个好兆头，因为这个部门为美国警方和其它公共安全部门生产通讯设备。

目前摩托罗拉的股价已低于1月31日11.50美元的收盘价，在那之后，该公司“屈从”了当时持有摩托罗拉5%股权的激进投资者卡尔•伊坎(Carl Icahn)的压力。在过去12个月中的大部分时间里，该股一直在13至19美元之间波动。此外，摩托罗拉计划将另一子公司分拆到同北电网络(Nortel Networks Corp)组建的合资公司中，相关谈判仍在进行，不过投资者却反应冷淡。这家网络子公司规模较小，表现也不尽人意。

周四，摩托罗拉收于11.28美元，其52周低点为10.01美元。

不过，并非所有人都对摩托罗拉的手机子公司持悲观看法。斯蒂文斯理工学院(Stevens Institute of Technology)教授乔治•卡尔霍恩(George Calhoun)说，摩托罗拉是该行业组成部分的事实不会因为它在设计方面经历了困难的一年而有所改变。对那些希望进入无线领域的企业而言，这些资产很有价值。

但在有些人看来，去年亏损12亿美元的摩托罗拉手机业务作为一家独立子公司是否会更有价值，答案还不清楚。该公司可能不愿放弃摩托罗拉品牌，蝙蝠翼形状的标识以及作为设备运作、设计和制造基础的专利权，而摩托罗拉的其它一些部门也在使用这些。

摩托罗拉首席执行长格雷格•布朗(Greg Brown)已接管了手机子公司，它也开发出了深受欢迎的Razr手机。摩托罗拉发言人说，布朗非常重视将公司的发展策略贯彻到移动设备部门。摩托罗拉周四还任命保罗•利斯卡(Paul Liska)担任首席财务长。利斯卡曾在几家私人资本运营公司任职，并担任过Sears, Roebuck & Co.的财务主管，当时他主持将旗下的信用卡子公司出售给了花旗集团(Citigroup Inc.)。

对摩托罗拉看法的转变在上周于西班牙巴塞罗纳举行的Mobile World Congress贸易展上也得到了体现。尽管人们都在等待进入诺基亚和三星电子的展台，但摩托罗拉的展台前却相当冷清。

伊坎认为，摩托罗拉手机部门的价值为190亿美元，相当其去年的销售额，需要进行分拆以吸引高级管理层。摩托罗拉目前的市值为257亿美元，而业内领头羊诺基亚的市值为1,400亿美元，年销售额是其两倍。

长时间寻找买家或合作伙伴可能损害这家子公司的前景。在美国售出的手机中，每三部就有一部是这家子公司生产的。American Technology Research的分析师马克•麦基奇尼(Mark McKechnie)谈到，供应商可能开始不愿再接受定制加工。他对摩托罗拉股票的评级为卖出。他说，如果摩托罗拉放弃出售打算，决定用二到五年的时间扭亏为盈，他会深受鼓舞。

购买摩托罗拉手机的移动运营商也开始规避风险。它们的报纸广告正更多宣传其他竞争对手的手机。据知情者透露，Verizon Wireless预计今年推出的诺基亚新款手机将超过摩托罗拉。Verizon Wireless是Verizon Communications Inc.与沃达丰空中通讯公司(Vodafone Group PLC)的合资公司。

摩托罗拉表示，目前公司与客户和合作者的关系良好。

Motorola Hung Up By Handsets

Motorola Inc. is trying to break itself up to boost its value, but so far, those efforts have had the opposite effect.

Three weeks after the Schaumburg, Ill.-based telecommunications-equipment maker announced that it was considering a sale or spinoff of its troubled mobile-devices division, no buyers have emerged. Top handset vendors Nokia Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. have said they aren't interested, and the consumer-electronics companies that analysts had expected to step forward so far haven't. And that has weighed on Motorola's stock price.

The lack of potential buyers already is changing the perception of the Motorola unit among analysts and investors. It has gone from one that simply needed to roll out new products faster to one whose problems are, some believe, too tough to fix.

'I think going public with its intentions hasn't made it easier to find a solution and has raised doubts about Motorola's commitment to the business,' said Ittai Kidron, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., who rates the shares 'outperform.'

The one bright spot for a partnership -- an expression of interest in 'wider cooperation' by Chinese equipment maker ZTE Corp. -- grew cloudy this week, thanks to the collapse of an unrelated deal. Chinese company Huawei Co. and Bain Capital Partners LLC were seeking to acquire U.S. network-technology provider 3Com Corp. But amid political pressure, they dropped their bid for clearance from a U.S. national-security panel. That doesn't bode well for potential Chinese investment in Motorola, which, through a different division, makes communications gear for U.S. police and other public-safety departments.

Motorola stock is now trading below $11.50, its closing price on Jan. 31, just before the company bowed to pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, who then held 5% of the company. The stock had been trading in the mid- to high teens for most of the past 12 months. Investors have also reacted coolly to word of Motorola's continuing talks to spin off another of its units, its small and sluggish networks division, into a joint venture with Nortel Networks Corp.

In 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Motorola traded at $11.28. That compares to its 52-week low of $10.01. The shares currently trade at 0.6 times estimated sales for this year, cheaper than its peers.

Not everyone is pessimistic about Motorola's handset unit, however. 'All of the ways in which Motorola is a part of this industry aren't going to go away because they have had a bad year on the design side,' says George Calhoun, a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. 'That package ought to have a lot of value to someone who wanted to step into the wireless arena.'

But to others, it isn't clear that Motorola's handset business, which lost $1.2 billion last year, is worth more as a standalone unit. The company might not be willing to part with the Motorola brand, its batwing logo or the patents that underlie the devices' operations, design and manufacturing, some of which are used by other divisions at Motorola.

Chief Executive Greg Brown has taken over the handset unit, which developed the popular Razr cellphone. Mr. Brown 'is keenly focused on executing the company's strategy in mobile devices,' said a spokeswoman for Motorola, which yesterday named Paul Liska as chief financial officer. Mr. Liska previously worked at several private-equity firms and also was finance chief of what was then Sears, Roebuck & Co., where he negotiated the sale of its credit-card unit to Citigroup Inc.

The changing sentiment around Motorola was brought to life last week at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. While people waited to get into the booths of Nokia and Samsung, there was little activity around Motorola's display.

Mr. Icahn believes that the handset division is valued at $19 billion, equal to the unit's sales last year, and needs to be separate to attract top management. Motorola currently has a market value of $25.7 billion, compared to market leader Nokia, which has a market capitalization of $140 billion, or double its annual sales.

A prolonged search for buyers or partners could damage prospects for the division, which makes one of every three phones sold in the U.S. Suppliers may begin to shy away from doing custom work, says Mark McKechnie, an analyst at American Technology Research who has a 'sell' rating on Motorola's shares. He says he would be encouraged if the company called off the sale and decided to take the next two to five years to turn itself around.

Carriers that buy Motorola phones are already hedging their bets. Their newspaper advertisements are featuring more phones from competitors. This year, Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, expects to introduce more new models made by Nokia than by Motorola, according to a person familiar with the matter.

For the time being, Motorola says its relationships with customers and partners are strong.