Motorola's loss is likely to be Dell's gain. Friday, Dell Inc. announced Motorola's Ron Garriques was leaving his post at the handset maker to run its consumer unit.
Garriques (pictured) stepped down from his position as Executive VP in charge of Motorola's mobile devices business to assume his new post. Dell's consumer unit currently accounts for just 15% of its total sales; the hope is that Garriques will revitalize Dell's product design as he did with Motorola's best-selling Razr phone and thus help Dell recapture market share it lost to Hewlett-Packard and foreign computer makers such as Lenovo and Acer. The defection may spell bad news for Motorola as CEO Ed Zander tries to boost eroded profit margins.
Sources: Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Reuters
Commentary: Dell Jumps Back on the Consumer Bandwagon • Dell Needs Less Bland PCs To Target Retail Sales • PC Sales Jump on Demand for Vista
Stocks/ETFs to watch: Dell (DELL), Motorola (MOT). Competitors: Gateway (GTW), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Lenovo (LNVGY.PK). ETFs: iShares Goldman Sachs Technology (IGM), iShares Dow Jones US Technology (IYW)
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