Ahead of the expected reporting of more gloomy results later this week, Motorola is busy reorganising its business. But instead of the previously announced split into two standalone operations, the company is understood to breaking into three.

The US vendor is expected to announce that it is to create three new business entities from its home and networks mobility division: television set-top boxes and modems; carrier-class wireless equipment; and next-generation wireless equipment, which will include WiMAX and LTE.

Home and networks mobility, in terms of revenue, is Motorola’s second largest division, generating $2.4bn worth of sales during the first quarter. This represents year on year growth of 2 per cent, while overall, the home and networks division posted an operating profit of $153m for the first quarter.

Motorola’s largest division by revenue is its beleaguered mobile devices business unit, generating $3.3bn of sales during the first quarter, which was a 39 per cent drop compared with the same quarter the previous year. The mobile devices unit posted an operating loss of $418m during the three months ended March 30.

Many analysts had speculated that changes at Motorola’s mobile devices unit would be the first major restructuring move by the US supplier in an attempt to revive its flagging fortunes in the handset market.

In March this year, Motorola announced it would split into two publicly traded entities in 2009, separating its mobile phone unit from the rest of the business. Carl Icahn, a billionaire investor in Motorola, has long campaigned that the US supplier should sell its handset business.