Forex

Motorola Inc. will restructure its home and networks mobility unit into three separate businesses, which could ease the way for their potential sale, according to media reports.

Motorola said in March that it plans to separate the handset business, which has been hurt by a two-year-long decline in cell phone sales, from the home and networks business. Now, the world's third-largest cell phone maker told employees in a memo last week it will split its second-largest division into three segments, according to a story published on The Wall Street Journal's Web site Sunday.

The home and networks business sells TV set-top boxes, digital video recording equipment and modems, as well as network gear such as data and voice equipment for telecom service providers. The division posted a 2 percent increase in fiscal first-quarter sales to $2.4 billion.

Shares of Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola have struggled, as Wall Street worries that economic distress will hurt the sale of its cell phone handsets in the second half of the year, despite signs that competitors are thriving. Analysts have said the company's handset business continued to lose ground in second quarter as market share tumbled and the average selling prices for its products declined.

That has signaled to Wall Street that Motorola's competitive stance is weakening against rivals like Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., the world's No. 1 and No. 2 cell phone handset makers.

Motorola is scheduled to report its second-quarter financial results on Thursday. Calls to the company for comment weren't immediately returned late Sunday.