Icahn calls for Motorola (MOT) break-up once again

Carl Icahn is not targeting Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) for any big shareholder action now. He is not trying to put himself on the board. But, yesterday he once again called for the company to break itself up.

Icahn said that "the company's handheld business could be worth about $10 billion," according to Reuters. This means that Icahn's math could be off, at least for current Motorola shareholders. The company has a market cap of $44 billion. It is hard to see how the firm's two smaller divisions would be worth more than $35 million.

Motorola's network and home mobility division has its set-top box operation and the business that sells infrastructure products for telecommunications. The operation had revenue of $2.5 billion last quarter and operating income of $191 million. Given what has happened to the share prices of competing operations like Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE: NT) and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), it is hard to imagine that this could be sold for more than one time its $10 billion in annual revenue.

This leaves the company's enterprise mobility business, which does business for government and private networks. The division is in good shape. Last quarter, on $1.8 billion in revenue, the operation had $303 million in operating income. In the June quarter, this part of Motorola grew 41%. But, even if it is worth 3x sales, the $30 billion would bring Motorola's entire value to $50 billion.

That is not much of a premium for shareholders.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.