After mounting speculation and endless rumors, Motorola has finally admitted that it's considering spinning out its handset business. The announcement by Motorola CEO Greg Brown came after the close of US trading yesterday. In early trading today, shares of the embattled company rose as much as 17% of the Frankfurt exchange, Bloomberg reports.

The news comes after Motorola experienced a 38% drop in phone shipments in the most recent quarter. Much of the lost market share went to Apple and Samsung, which pushed Samsung beyond Moto to become the second-largest handset maker behind Nokia.