Motorola Buys Symbol

Motorola is buying the barcode and RFID developer, Symbol Technologies for approximately $3.9 billion. Symbol develops products and systems used in end-to-end enterprise mobility solutions featuring rugged mobile computing, advanced data capture, radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless infrastructure and mobility management.

"Everything is going digital, and everything digital is going mobile - this is especially evident in the way businesses are run today. Motorola and Symbol share the same vision of a digital, mobile world for enterprises that matches the world people enjoy at home and at play," said Motorola Chairman and CEO, Ed Zander. "This transaction significantly advances Motorola's enterprise mobility strategy and is consistent with our focus on building on our already strong intellectual property portfolio and extending Motorola's seamless mobility leadership. We are confident that this transaction will create significant value for stockholders by establishing a strong presence for Motorola in attractive adjacencies with enormous potential for sustained growth."

Upon completion of the transaction, Symbol will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola and will be the cornerstone of Motorola's Networks and Enterprise business. Motorola intends to maintain Symbol's Holtsville, N.Y. headquarters, which will be the core of Motorola's global enterprise mobility business and serve as a center of excellence.

The acquisition of Symbol will not affect the pace of Motorola's share repurchase activity.

"The acquisition of Symbol is focused around Motorola's belief that everything is going wireless, and gives Motorola a complementary strength in enterprise WLAN to their portfolio of other wireless technologies, which includes cellular, mesh, and canopy wireless broadband," said Richard Webb, directing analyst for wireless at Infonetics. "Few other vendors can claim to rival that kind of position in the next generation wireless arena, and Motorola have an opportunity to use this acquisition to really push forward their agenda of seamless mobility."

"Symbol was a key innovator in the early WLAN space, and the first vendor with a WLAN switch product, back in 2002," said Webb. "That space is a little crowded now with several specialists such as Aruba Networks performing strongly and catching up with Symbol's early lead, but Symbol has continued to innovate, as exemplified by its next generation wireless platform, WiNG, as well as newer areas of significant potential growth, such as RFID."

Posted to the site on 20th September 2006