Firdose Vandrevala quits Motorola

Posted on | June 12, 2007 |

Firdose Vandrevala, Chairman of Motorola India is quiting the company. Mr Vandrevala had joined Motorola in October 2005.

The Hindu Business Line says that Vandrevala’s exit is being seen as the direct fallout of Motorola losing the 45.5 million line contract from BSNL.

Motorola officials denied any link between Mr Vandrevala’s exit and the way the BSNL contract was handled. Industry sources close to the development, however, said that while Motorola’s top bosses were not in favour of going to court against BSNL, Mr Vandrevala had pushed the move. Motorola, which is eyeing future contracts from the State owned company, finally decided to withdraw the case as it was straining the relationship with senior BSNL and Government officials. The case delayed BSNL’s expansion plans by six months causing huge losses to the PSU.

This is the second time a Motorola India chief is quitting the company under mysterious circumstances. The company’s earlier India head, Mr Pramod Saxena, had also suddenly announced his exit following allegations of influencing BSNL tendering process.

Vandrevala’s stint at Motorola saw the company’s market share growing to nearly 14% from less than 5% two-year ago. The period also saw the company setting up a manufacturing facility in India and partnerships with Bharti Teletec and ITC’s e-choupal.

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