Activist investor Carl Icahn said on Friday he plans to nominate former Viacom chief Frank Biondi and WR Hambrecht's chairman along with two other directors to Motorola's board.Biondi, who headed Viacom for about a decade, had previously come to Icahn's aid in a bitter proxy battle against Time Warner, agreeing to be chief executive of the media company if Icahn won his proxy campaign.
Other nominees for Icahn, who wants to split up Motorola, include brokerage WR Hambrecht's chairman, William Hambrecht, who helped persuade Google to use a Web-based auction for its initial public offering.
For the past decade, Hambrecht's firm has been a lone advocate of auction IPOs, which let the market set the price of an offering rather than underwriters.
Motorola said it would review the notice, which came a day after it said it was considering splitting off its mobile phone unit, apparently giving in to pressure from Icahn.
Icahn said in a CNBC television interview that he wants
"You need a top person to run that. That top person has to be brought in," said Icahn. Greg Brown became Motorola's chief executive in January, replacing Ed Zander, who Icahn had said was not right for the job.
"They have to take the handheld business away from the management team at the rest of the company," Icahn said.
Icahn declined comment when asked if a company such as Dell should buy Motorola's biggest unit.
"I'm not saying it should be sold or not sold," he said. "I think it should be spun off into a separate company."
Icahn and his associates own about 5 percent of Motorola, according to the company, which said it has not yet scheduled its 2008 annual shareholder meeting.
The billionaire investor, who failed to win a seat on Motorola's board last year after a bitter proxy battle, said he was nominating four directors including Biondi this year.
Icahn also put Lionel Kimerling, a professor for Materials Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on his slate along with Keith Meister, a managing director for Icahn's investment funds.
Motorola shares closed up $1.16, or more than 10 percent, at $12.69 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
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