Sanford is not explaining how the merger would go down, and it could be complicated since Sony Ericsson is a nine-year-old joint venture between both Sony and Ericsson. A merger could also be difficult geographically, given that Motorola is based in a Chicago suburb, and Sony Ericsson is in based in London with R&D headquartered out of Sweden. But it’s definitely true that Motorola has been attempting to spin-off its struggling handset division for the past couple of years.

Here’s the justification for the merger:

—Marketshare: Both Motorola’s and Sony Ericsson’s global handset market share is less than 5 percent each. But both are strong in different markets. Sony Ericsson has a decent market share in Europe (12.4 percent) and India (10 percent) and Motorola has good marketshare in the U.S. (17.3 percent and China (10 percent).

—Cost savings: Sanford estimates that there would be significant cost savings from R&D and marketing. Currently, Sony Ericsson spends around 15 percent of revenues on R&D and 13 percent of revenues on SG&A. Motorola spends around 33 percent of revenues on operating costs for devices. Sanford estimates that a merger could save 10 percent in operating costs.