Keep it in the family: Motorola chief hands over to son

The legendary chairman of Motorola, Robert Galvin, is to step down after 60 years with the company, leaving his son to carry on the dynasty.

The announcement comes days after Motorola released its second profits warning in six weeks, threatening that the company could fall into loss for the first time in 15 years if its sales slowdown continues. Motorola was founded by Paul Galvin in 1928 to make radios which could work from mains power rather than batteries. Son Robert moved onto the board 55 years ago and stepped down as CEO in 1990. In 1997, Christopher Galvin became CEO of the group. Robert Galvin moved the company from a maker of car radios, military portable radios and integrated circuits to being a powerhouse in semiconductors, pagers and mobile phones. It remains the second largest maker of mobile phones after Nokia. However, Motorola lost $2bn on the ill-fated satellite phones group Iridium and over the past four years has had to cut costs, slash jobs and otherwise reduce expenditure.