Just a few weeks after Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) released disastrous fourth quarter results, the telecom company's new CEO Greg Brown has taken direct control of the company's wireless handset division. Apparently, Brown is not ready to cede defeat to Samsung Electronics, which wrestled the "world's second largest" wireless phone maker spot away from Motorola in 2007.

Even as Brown apparently rolls up his sleeves and tries to fix what's wrong with the wireless giant's handset division, the company is still being rumored for a breakup to unlock shareholder value. With Motorola shares sitting at under $12, the pressure will be on for that to happen sooner than later. With Carl Icahn still yelling for Motorola blood, 2008 will be an interesting year for the Illinois wireless behemoth.

Brown will replace Stu Reed, who took operating responsibility over Motorola's wireless handset division last July. Reed will remain with Motorola, but the company was not clear on his responsibilities. With Motorola's handset division producing half of the company's revenue, Brown will now have the job of trying to either get it back to prominence in the global handset market or prime it for a sale should a breakup of the company happen.

When Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced this past Friday that CEO Ed Zander would be leaving his post come the first of next year, not too many industry pundits and analysts were surprised. Motorola seems to have lost its way in the last 18 months when it comes to the wireless handset marketplace, and Zander's inability to manage through that challenge cost him his job. But can his successor, the much-admired Motorola President Greg Brown, stage a comeback for the wireless giant?

Brown has every bit as impressive (if not more) of a resume as Zander, having racked up 25 years in the tech industry along with mounds of operations expertise. Zander's claim to fame was as past president of Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVAD), although at the helm of Motorola, his reputation took a beating as the tech giant floundered against the competition, both in market share and profit.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) chief Ed Zander is on the hot seat, big time. Although Carl Icahn failed months ago to secure a seat on the Motorola board (where he would have pushed Zander out if possible), there are activist shareholders amassing at the cellphone maker's border ready to torch the place and install new management. Why? Well, Motorola's recent results just posted today added more doom to the gloom for Zander and Co. His days are now officially numbered.

Why in the world is Motorola not profitable and not expecting to get there until 2008? It is still the world's second-largest wireless handset maker, but for some reason it has not figured out in recent quarters how to turn a profit, while making upwards of $9 billion per quarter. If Zander was brought in years ago for his operational expertise (generally this involves cost cutting and margin expertise), then the exact opposite results being seen now at the company he leads are just nudging him closer and closer to the front door. As in, bye-bye, boss.

Motorola blamed weak sales for the second quarter on lackluster results in Asia and Europe. Well, its business is not that stellar in the U.S. either, so where is the company doing well? Nowhere -- and without a road map of some new killer cellphone product, Motorola may be going absolutely nowhere. Even if the RAZR 2 launch is very successful, I'm not sure it can repeat the blowout success of the original RAZR handset, which padded Motorola's bottom line for over two years. That day has now ended, and Zander's inability to line up successors and revenue producers in the last 24 months will lead to his end at Motorola this year as well. Chalk it up.