Four-way split in the works for Motorola?

A possible four-way split of Schaumburg-based Motorola may be on the table, including the sale of some assets to a Chinese company, an Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. analyst wrote in a report issued Friday.

Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron said Motorola is in "advanced talks" with China tech company, Huawei, for Motorola's telecom equipment business.

Motorola also could be shopping around its TV set-top box business, the report said.

"The process could be complicated given Motorola's relationships with U.S. carriers, but parts of the portfolio could be shed," Kidron wrote.

Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson declined to comment.

Motorola said more than a year ago it would split off its mobile phone business, hired Sanjay Jha as a separate chief executive officer to run it, and geared up for the split under pressure from billionaire activist and shareholder Carl Icahn. In late May, Co-CEO Greg Brown said Motorola is still considering such a split.

Kidron said that while there's no guarantee that any sales would happen, "we believe at the very least they reflect management's ongoing attempts to continue to focus the company's business and unlock value."

In the meantime, Motorola continued to streamline its operations, while suffering the woes of the recession and growing global competition that pushed it further down to No. 4 on the popularity list for cool phones.

In April, Motorola posted a first-quarter net loss of $231 million, or 10 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $194 million, or 9 cents, in the same period a year before. First-quarter sales were $5.4 billion, compared to $7.4 billion in the same period a year before.

Motorola also was on target to eliminate about 7,500 jobs by June, about 500 more than previously expected.