Bloomberg- Tudor Investment and Highfields Capital Management bought Motorola shares in recent months, betting that the maker of mobile phones would return to profit and recoup lost market share.
The purchase by the hedge funds of 46 million shares of Motorola in the first quarter made the company Tudor’s largest holding, according to a regulatory filing. Highfields bought 18 million shares of Motorola, whose stock has dropped 30 percent since October.
The funds may expect a recovery for the company in 2008, and the attempt by the billionaire investor Carl Icahn to obtain a seat on Motorola’s board might also have attracted them to the stock, said Lawrence Harris, an analyst with Oppenheimer. Motorola posted its first loss in almost three years in the first quarter, while Nokia and Samsung Electronics won market share with more advanced video and music devices.
