Icahn pushes for role in control of Motorola

One of Motorola Inc.'s strongest and most diligent critics returned Friday to push a slate of proposed board members for the upcoming shareholder's meeting.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn nominated four people to anchor his agenda to turn around the beleaguered Schaumburg company.

"Last year Motorola refused to accept my suggestions for additions to the board and instead engaged in an unnecessary proxy fight, insisting that they had the team and the plan to address Motorola's problems," Icahn said in a statement. "We are all painfully aware where that leadership has taken Motorola."

Icahn was unavailable for an interview. Motorola on Friday acknowledged it received Icahn's proposals and declined further comment.

Last spring, Icahn sought in vain to attain a seat on the board with the aim to remove CEO Ed Zander and break up the company. Since then, Zander resigned and was replaced by Greg Brown, who announced Thursday Motorola would consider selling its mobile phone business.

Icahn's slate of board nominations are:

• Frank Biondi Jr., president and chief executive officer of Viacom Inc. He is a director of Amgen Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp., Hasbro Inc., Bank of New York Co. Inc. and Seagate Technology.

• William R. Hambrecht, founder, chairman and CEO of W.R. Hambrecht & Co., which was instrumental in persuading Google to use an Internet-based auction for its initial public offering.

• Lionel C. Kimerling, the Thomas Lord professor of materials science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• Keith Meister, who serves as a managing director of the Icahn investment funds and since August 2003 has been the CEO/principal executive officer of Icahn Enterprises.

Icahn owns about 114 million Motorola shares, representing about 5 percent of the company's outstanding shares.