Billionaire financier Carl Icahn has filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to compell Motorola to disclose internal documents on its mobile-device business. He said he wants “to investigate whether and to what extent the board of directors of Motorola failed in their duties as directors in supervising management and setting policy and direction.”

Icahn ultimately hopes to force Motorola to divest its struggling handset business, which he sees as hurting the company’s bottom line.

“2008 was supposed to be a successful and profitable year in mobile devices with the potential to achieve 10 percent operating margins in the near future,” Icahn said. “Instead, the results are a stockholders’ nightmare.”

To further enhance his clout, Icahn recently raised his ownership stake in Motorola from 5 percent to 6.3 percent, and he is seeking to place four outside executives on Motorola’s board. “We intend to share with Motorola’s stockholders information obtained pursuant to the request as part of our proxy battle with Motorola,” Icahn said.

Strategic Alternatives

Motorola announced in January that it would be evaluating ways to help its mobile unit recapture growth and profitability. More recently, CEO Greg Brown noted that the strategic alternatives under consideration — sell the mobile-device business, spin it off or fix it — are not mutually exclusive options.

“I think they are building blocks,” Brown said. “But obviously no decision has been made and we are still evaluating the strategic alternatives.”

Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi believes Motorola’s January announcement was intended to buy the company time by keeping “investors a little bit more happy and calm.” However, she warned that the continuing uncertainty is hurting the company’s relationships with wireless operators worldwide.

“I think we are now starting to see the operators being a little bit wary about value in the future and will be more cautious with…