MENLO PARK, Calif. (CNN/Money) - Outgoing Motorola CEO Chris Galvin and his board of directors committed an unusual corporate faux pas late Friday evening: They told the truth.

Usually when a board pushes out its CEO -- especially one whose granddad founded the company and who has worked there for 36 years -- directors will couch the departure in euphemisms. They'll say he's "pursuing other interests." Or he'll step down only after a successor is found, obscuring the true sequence of events that led to the exit.

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Not so with Galvin, 53, who angrily -- and extraordinarily -- spelled out the reasons for his "retirement" in a 5:10 p.m. news release Friday afternoon. (In its timing Motorola did follow the time-honored tradition of publicity-shy companies by announcing bad news after a bunch of folks have headed out for the weekend.)

"While I have achieved substantial results, the board and I do not share the same view of the company's pace, strategy and progress at this stage of the turnaround," Galvin said in his statement. Translation: I think I was getting the better of Motorola's problems; my bosses disagree.

Galvin went on to list eight bullet points of accomplishments, each one an amorphous, fuzzy distinction that almost screams out what's omitted, namely that Motorola has languished under his leadership.

The once-proud company's stock is worth about 35 percent less than when he became CEO in early 1997. That's not one of those unfair bubble-era comparisons, either. It was more than five times its current price at one point. In the same time frame the Nasdaq composite has risen about 50 percent.

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Galvin's departure is a victory for corporate governance. It shows that a board of independent directors will eventually take action, even against an ensconced CEO. Three of Motorola's 10 outside directors have joined since 2002. One can assume they had less patience and reverence for Motorola's storied past, as embodied in the Galvin family.

Highlighting the unusual nature of his departure, Motorola's presiding non-executive director, John Pepper, noted that "the board supports Chris Galvin's decision to retire." It doesn't get much clearer than that.

Wall Street, which always tells the truth when it trades, was clear about its feelings regarding Galvin. It bid up Motorola's shares almost 6 percent in after-hours trading.

Truth-telling apparently counts for something.

Adam Lashinsky is a senior writer for Fortune magazine. Send e-mail to Adam at lashinskysbottomline@yahoo.com.

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