Moto may be close to hiring new handset chief

Having already tried layoffs, splits, ritual sacrifice ousters and the emergence of yet another device in the Q9 series, Motorola reportedly is close to hiring a new shaman for its wireless unit, in hopes of salvaging the company's future (read: stock price) and get back to the glory days of the RAZR.

Todd Bradley is executive VP of HP's Personal Systems group, and he's been around the block a bit.

Bradley has a 25-year management career and has held senior roles at GE Capital Corp., The Dun & Bradstreet Corp., Gateway Corp., FedEx Corp and palmOne. Prior to joining HP, he was the chief executive officer of palmOne, where he led a successful turnaround of that company and established a new category of mobile devices for the industry.

Bradley reportedly is one of two people being considered to helm Moto's soon-to-be independent wireless branch. But with rumblings last week that the handset spinoff might not happen, we'll take this with a grain of salt until the ink's dry.

Update: Former Moto marketing manager James King apparently is jumping ship to Samsung.