Almost a year after narrowly losing his bid for a seat on Motorola Inc.'s [MOT] board, Carl Icahn has done even better: He got two.

Motorola Monday said it has agreed to nominate two members of Icahn's proposed slate: William Hambrecht, 72, founder of W.R. Hambrecht & Co., and Keith Meister, 34, a managing director at Icahn's investment funds. It also gave the billionaire financier the right to advise Motorola on the planned separation of its mobile devices division, a move that Icahn has advocated. Hambrecht and Meister also will have clearance to discuss the spinoff with Icahn.

In return, Icahn agreed to drop the rest of his proposed four-person slate and withdraw the lawsuit he had filed against Motorola to release documents relating to the strategic decisions surrounding the mobile devices unit.

"This is a very positive step for Motorola in that shareholder representatives will have strong input into board decisions affecting the future of our company," Icahn said in a statement. "In addition, the Motorola board has also taken an important step forward for corporate governance in that the separated company, which includes Mobile Devices, will be essentially free from poison pills and staggered boards, both of which, in my opinion, serve to make democracy a travesty in corporate America."

The members of Icahn's slate who didn't make the cut are Frank Biondi, the former CEO of Viacom Inc., and Lionel Kimerling, professor of engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Apparently, Icahn really wants Meister on the board. Motorola reportedly had offered Icahn two board seats last month as long as Meister wasn't one of the nominees. That restriction apparently was a dealbreaker for Icahn, who rejected Motorola's first olive branch.

Shares of Motorola were up 1.3%, to $9.80, in morning trading. -- Olaf de Senerpont Domis

See April 7 press release from Motorola via Yahoo! Finance
See March 26 story from Tech Confidential