Motorola continues search for new phone headquarters

Motorola Inc. said Monday it continues to eye different offices as potential headquarters for its Mobile Devices and Home businesses and will move about 200 workers to the new location. But that move isn't expected to happen this year.

The company, which now houses the mobile phone business in Libertyville, said it will keep some operations in Illinois once it splits into a separate, publicly traded company in early 2011 and Libertyville would be included.

But reports have tracked Motorola's search variously to downtown Chicago, around the suburbs, to Dallas and to the Silicon Valley, near where co-CEO Sanjay Jha still maintains a residence.

"If Mobile Devices and Home make the decision to relocate its headquarters, this would affect less than 200 people and would not occur in 2010," said Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson. "Illinois is very important to Motorola, and today the company employs more than 10,000 people in the greater Chicago-area. Regardless of any potential relocation, Motorola will continue to maintain a meaningful presence in the state of Illinois."

She did not provide more specifics. U.S. Equities Realty LLC, reportedly seeking properties on behalf of Motorola, did not return messages.

Earlier this month, Jha had said he likely would head a much smaller company with fewer than 25,000 workers. He also wouldn't announce anything until sometime this summer on what the new company would look like. That would lead to yet another restructuring of the Libertyville campus.

Speculation has abounded as Motorola continues to prepare to split into two companies and brokers hunger for a well-known company seeking to move during a real estate slump.

In February, Motorola announced its long-awaited plan on how it would split up its businesses into two publicly traded companies. One company, headed by Jha, would have the Mobile Devices and the Home businesses. They will continue to focus on wireless handsets and smartphones as well as set-top boxes and other related equipment for cable TV services.

The second company would include the Enterprise Mobile and Networks businesses headed by Brown. These businesses will continue to focus on two-way radios and other equipment for government and law enforcement agencies as well as installation and services related to the wireless network infrastructures.