Back in the Roaring 1980s, Carl Icahn was known as a prototypical corporate raider as he went hostile on a myriad of old-world companies such as B. F. Goodrich and American Can.

Now, in his early 70s, Icahn hasn't slowed down much. Funny enough, these days he's targeting tech companies, like BEA, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and, of course, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). Hmmmm... maybe these companies have become bloated and mature -- just like the laggards of the 1980s?

Perhaps so. After all, Icahn's strategy is to agitate for change, such as for cost cutting, share buybacks and higher dividends.

As for his pursuit of Yahoo (which involves a proxy fight), it's certainly a gutsy play. Simply put, there's no guarantee that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will come to the table again. So far, the company is doing a good job in showing disinterest.

As Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) continues sliding into irrelevance in the mobile phone industry, it could slip to number four in the global cellphone rankings. After Korean giant Samsung Electronics handily beat Motorola in 2007 for the number two spot, and has held it ever since, Korean company LG is poised to overtake the third spot from the American cellphone icon later this year.

LG has come on strong in recent years, with hits like the LG Chocolate, a phone that has sold 18 million units since its debut a few years ago. LG also has a huge fan in the U.S. in the form of No. 2 cellular carrier Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD). So, the soon-to-be top-three mobile phone lineup for global sales include a Finnish company and two South Korean companies. Motorola, poised for fourth place soon, would be followed by Sweden's Sony Ericsson.

Although Motorola has tumbled in recent years and is in the worse shape it could possibly be in, LG's rise hasn't been because of its competitor's stumbles. LG and Samsung both have made massive gains with high-end handsets, slick marketing and awesome designs in recent years, and have propelled themselves on their own merits over and above the competition.

All this without having a blockbuster like Motorola's RAZR, which sold 50 million units and still sells on store shelves today. As Motorola knew back in 2005, but seems to have forgotten today, design is where it's at and LG and Samsung both have it right now. As a result, Motorola seems to continue sliding down the pole of handset makers that just can't seem to compete any longer like they once did. I doubt newer CEO Greg Brown can fix that, but he may not have to.

Sprint (NYSE:S) is upi 5% on news that it will form an alliance to build out it WiMax broadband network.

Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) is up over 10% on news that it will be part of the Sprint initiative.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) is down 1.2% on news that Bill Gates says his company will not pursue its takeover bid.

Motorola (NYSE:MOT) is up 1.2% on news that Carl Icahn has raised his stake in the company.

Stocks may trade differently in the pre-market than they do in the regular session.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Visa, Cardionet and Motorola were today's noteworthy initiations:

• RBC initiated Visa Inc (NYSE: V) with an Outperform based on margin expansion opportunities, the secular growth story towards electronic payments, lack of credit risk, and international opportunities. Piper started Visa with a Neutral rating. While the firm believes that Visa should generate long-term earnings growth and free cash flow, the firm thinks that Visa's valuation has increased the risk that strong earnings growth may not meet investors' expectations. However, the firm believes that Visa can still post strong results despite the U.S. consumer slowdown. Goldman initiated Visa with a Buy rating and $90 target and Morgan Stanley started shares with an Equal Weight rating and $75 target.
• Citigroup rated Cardionet Inc (NASDAQ: BEAT) a Buy, citing favorable arrhythmia monitoring trends. The firm has a $26 target on Cardionet.
• Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) was assumed with an Equal Weight rating and $75 target at Morgan Stanley on valuation.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Merriman initiated Netezza Corporation (NYSE: NZ) with a Neutral rating.
• Credit Suisse started Cascal N.V. (NYSE: HOO) with a Neutral rating and $11.65 target.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Motorola, Williams-Sonoma and Synchronoss were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Thomas Weisel downgraded Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) to Market Weight from Overweight based on the general uncertainty in the company's core markets and the likelihood that the spin off may not occur for several quarters.
• Piper believes Williams-Sonoma Inc (NYSE: WSM) faces a challenging environment, and their checks reveal weakness at Pottery Barn. Shares were cut to Neutral from Buy.
• ThinkPanmure downgraded Synchronoss Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: SNCR) to Accumulate from Buy. The firm expects a strong Q1 report but expects shares to sell-off following the Q1 conference call due to modest guidance and the lack of a major customer win announcement.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• RBC Capital downgraded Bank of Nova Scotia Halifax (NYSE: BNS) to Underperform from Sector Perform.
• JP Morgan cut The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: GT) to Neutral from Overweight.
• Goldman removed Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc (NYSE: POT) from its Conviction Buy List.

Goldman Sachs affirmed its "neutral" rating on Sysco (NYSE: SYY), saying "shares have been trading lower on concerns related to whether softening consumer spending is affecting casual dining and upper-end restaurants," according to the AP.

Thomas Weisel downgraded Motorola (NYSE:MOT) to "market weight" from "overweight" according to Briefing.com. The news service also reports that Morgan Stanley intiated Visa (NYSE:V) with a rating of "equal weight".

Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) was raised to "peer perform" at Bear Stearns according to a report at 24/7 Wall St. The financial website also writes that Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NYSE:GT) was cut to "neutral " at JP Morgan.

Douglas A. McIntyre

No matter how badly Motorola (NYSE:MOT) has done in the handset business, it has managed to keep its spot as the market share leader in its home base of the US but that may change. According to The Wall Street Journai, "Motorola's U.S. cellphone sales are dropping so sharply -- and Samsung is catching up so quickly -- that the South Korean company may soon knock Motorola from the perch it has held in the U.S. since it invented the cellphone in 1983."

What can be said? Motorola has been losing market share for the last two years and there is no reason to believe that it can reverse that trend. When its RAZR was selling well, it had 22% of the global market. Now that number is closer to 14%. Nokia (NYSE:NOK), the leader, has 39% of the global market.

The market share figure is not just a number on a piece of paper. It may result in making the spin-off of the handset unit to shareholders more difficult. After pressure from Carl Icahn and other investors, Motorola will split the company into two pieces. One will have the handset assets and the other the home products, enterprise, and government sales operations.

There has been some speculation that the handset part of the company is worth nothing. Motorola tried to sell the operation last year. As far as anyone knows, there were no buyers. The company's shares now trade for $9.55, down from $26 in October 2006. Almost all of that loss in value comes from problems in the handset operations.

When shareholders get their handset division stock in the spin-out, they will be lucky if they are worth $1.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

It seems that despite Apple's crushing earnings and sales estimates Wednesday and Ford swinging to profit this morning, investors are wary of earnings. Stock futures declined early Thursday following Amazon's earnings, Starbucks' profit warnings as well as other companies. In addition, debate over an expected pause in the Federal Reserve recent wave of rate cuts as well as some data seem to leave investors more on a cautious mood this morning.

U.S. stocks ended higher on Wednesday after better-than-forecast results from Boeing (NYSE: BA) helped sentiment on the Street, albeit in a choppy manner. The Dow industrials finished nearly 43 points higher, or 0.34%, the S&P 500 rose almost 4 points, or 0.29%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 28 points, or 1.29%.

Today, several economic reports are due out. At 8:30 a.m., weekly initial jobless claims will be released, as well as March durable goods orders. At 10:00 a.m., new home sales will come out, where another drop is expected.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) seems to be in the midst of a crisis, even as it prepares to split itself into two companies to give shareholders more visibility into just how bad one part of its business can be while the other piece can be, well, not so bad. Of course, I'm talking about the wireless giant's cellphone division, which is still in the top three worldwide in terms of sales. It's sinking faster than a rock, though. How did this come to pass?

After reading a missive by a former Motorola employee, Numair Faraz, who worked closely with the late Geoffrey Frost -- Motorola's former Chief Marketing Officer and father of the RAZR handset -- one has to wonder about a few things. For example, just what kind of incompetence has brewed in the corner office for the last three years? From reading Faraz's words, both former CEO Ed Zander is pitched as a complete idiot and slave driver who literally worked Frost to death and current CEO Greg Brown is pitched as a technological moron who can't even use email (his secretary prints off messages to read to him later). Are these truths? They sure could be.

Zander, who was highly regarded when he came back in 2004 to take over for CEO (and grandson of company founder) Chris Galvin, seemed to have everything going for him. Looking back, nothing ever went right for Zander. The RAZR that gave Motorola its two-year recognition was in the works before he arrived. What did Zander -- a former president of Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) -- do during his tenure with Motorola?

Swipe big chunks of compensation while churning out middling performance, according to many on Wall Street and Faraz as well. Maybe Galvin was not such a bad CEO after all, right? When Faraz said in 2003 that "Motorola's biggest problem is that Samsung kicks ass," he wasn't kidding -- and that's precisely what happened. Seems to be another example of very sub-par performance being rewarded with a golden parachute, while shareholders get shafted once again. Motorola stood at under $10 a share early today.

Before the bell: Stocks futures decline on UPS warning, financial and economic concerns

AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR)'s American Airlines cancelled 500 flights on Tuesday and is expected to cancel more flights Wednesday as the FAA inspects its MD-80 planes and if the airlines complies with federal rules about wiring on about 300 of its planes. MAR shares were down 2.3% in after-hours trading.

Boeing (NYSE: BA) may announce a 14- to 18-month delay of its already-delayed 787 Dreamliner according to the The Times of London, the AP reported. Seattle Post-Intelligencer puts the delay at 14 months from the original goal of first flight by the end of June, and first delivery in early 2009. Either way, the delays are much more than the 6-9 months analysts and buyers said they expected. BA shares were down 2.4% in very early premarket trading.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is keeping busy. After announcing it is splitting its handset and telecom equipment arms, and after settling a proxy battle with activist investor Carl Icahn, the cell phone maker on Wednesday said former AT&T Chairman and CEO David Dorman will be the non-executive chairman. He'll succeed Ed Zander, who as planned is retiring after the shareholder meeting on May 5.

When I saw the news of NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM)'s new mobile phone that emits fragrances, I began wondering what other oddities today's corporate powerhouses may be working on. No financial advice here, these are just some ideas I came up with:

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) will unveil headgear that doubles as both headphones and a personal masseuse, giving tantalizing head, neck and shoulders massages.

In an attempt to help with falling click-through rates, Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s new mobile phone will be offered free as long as you sign Google's activation agreement requiring you to click on a mobile ad every hour, even while you sleep.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that absent any catalyst beyond "cheap," the sector looks set to disappoint.

When people say "tech" on TV, it is almost always followed with "cheap," or "low valuation." To which I say, "So what?" AMD (NYSE: AMD) (Cramer's Take) looked cheap until last night. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) (Cramer's Take) looked cheap and there turned out to be no there there. Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) (Cramer's Take) looks cheap but all I hear are earnings cuts. Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) (Cramer's Take) looks cheap, but who cares?

Lots of cheap out there.

Here's my question: where's the catalyst?

Shorts? Stronger growth in the second half? No, the only catalysts I look for in tech are product cycles, and other than Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) (Cramer's Take) (nice move there), Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) (Cramer's Take) and maybe Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take), because we need a new phone there already, there are no new product cycles to speak of.

Last night, handset maker Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced that it would be slashing another 2,600 jobs as the company continues to battle lower sales. The current job cuts represent approximately 4% of its total job force as of the end of 2007 of 66,000 employees.

It wasn't that long ago that Motorola was a major force in the world of mobile phones, but over the past two years the company has definitely fallen from grace among consumers. Two years ago the company was the world's second largest handset maker, but that status is no more, and the company is currently sitting in the fourth spot overall.

Analysts have blamed the company's drop due to lack of innovation, and some have gone so far as to predict that the company's handset business is doomed if Motorola can not pick up the pace and start to pump out new and fresh ideas for consumers to gobble up.

Often it is the case that when the market awaits big news or important data, investors seem to wait on the sidelines and stocks trade in a tight range, often flat. This morning is no different. With the labor report released in about an hour, U.S. stock futures are mixed, near flat, as investors await the data.

Despite jobless claims Thursday rising to the highest level in two-and-half years, U.S. stocks finished with a modest rise thanks to better-than-forecast ISM service figures. The Dow industrials finished up 20 points, or 0.16%, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each rose more than a point, or 0.16% and 0.08% respectively.

Today, investors will focus their attention on the March jobs report due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Non farm payroll is expected to show a decline once again -- the third straight month. Economists expect the release show a decline of 50,000 jobs. Also, the unemployment rate is estimated to have risen to 5% in March. No doubt, the market will react to the jobs report as soon as it comes out.