Motorola Inc. announced that it would split into two publicly traded companies by the first quarter of next year, outlining the company's latest attempt to reinvigorate its disparate businesses.

As per the plan, the two companies would each account for roughly 50%of Motorola's current sales, which were reported as $22 billion last year.

The announced split is initiated to finally divide Motorola into smaller, more focused operations, taking apart the collection of often disparate businesses developed over the years by the company, which is based in Schaumburg, Ill.

However, Motorola Thursday revealed that it will group together its core handset unit with the unit that makes television set-top boxes, placing them under co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha.

"We have been at times a drain on resources on other businesses, and we've reduced shareholder value", Mr. Jha said on a conference call, adding the split would add value to both companies.

The split comes as the company seeks to turn around its various flagging units. The higher profile handset unit has reported some signals of life with the success of its Droid smart phone, which benefited from a heavy push by Verizon Wireless.