Motorola acquires Symbol Technologies

Cellular phone maker attracted by Symbol's long list of corporate customers.

Corinne Kator, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/21/2006

Mobile technology company Motorola announced this week it is buying Symbol Technologies, maker of bar code readers and other automatic data capture (ADC) products, for approximately $3.9 billion. Motorola hopes the acquisition will allow it to sell more of its wireless technology to corporate customers.

"With today's announcement, we're making a giant leap forward in the enterprise market space," says Greg Brown, president of Motorola’s networks and enterprise business. "Symbol's strength in capturing, moving and managing data inside the building directly complements the depth and breadth of Motorola's network capabilities outside the building. By combining our complementary strengths and by merging our customer bases, we are staking a clear claim on the enterprise mobility market today."

The transaction is expected to close in late 2006 or early 2007. At that time, Symbol will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola. Motorola plans to maintain Symbol’s Holtsville, N.Y., headquarters, which will become the core of Motorola's enterprise mobility business.

Analysts at Venture Development Corp. (VDC) say they will be closely watching how Motorola deals with Symbol’s ADC solutions, specifically its bar code scanning and RFID businesses.

"Although Motorola will want to retain Symbol Technologies' engine business to support integrated modules within mobile computers," says VDC, "their commitment to Symbol's traditional scanning business—especially for retail POS applications—may be questioned, and a potential spin-off of that business unit is conceivable."

Symbol isn't making much money on RFID technology, says VDC, but Motorola is likely to recognize RFID’s long-term potential and continue to invest in the technology.