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Motorola Pays $3.9 Billion To Take Over Symbol

Written by Evan Schuman
September 19th, 2006

Motorola has taken over RFID and barcode vendor Symbol Technologies for almost $4 billion in cash, which came to about $15/share.

Wall Street saw this as good news for Symbol and not-so-great-news for Motorola, as Motorola shares dropped 50 cents in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange, while Symbol shares increased 3 cents at $14.70 on the NYSE. But its stock price had already soared about 15 percent on Monday when it absorbed rumors that it might be purchased.

Motorola CEO Ed Zander issued a statement that the positions Motorola well for a digital future: “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.”

Posted in E-Commerce, IT Strategy/Industry, Mobile/Wireless/Contactless, Payment Systems, RFID
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One Comment | Read Motorola Pays $3.9 Billion To Take Over Symbol

  1. Richard Lucas Says:
    September 20th, 2006 at 8:13 am

    From: automaticidentification@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: end of Symbol

    The end of Symbol as an independent company is a big deal for those of us who have respected, feared and sometimes cursed the IP rich company for its influence on the auto ID community. What does this
    mean?
    for sure it is uncertainty in the auto ID channel (I’ve been a major importer of bar code products into Europe)
    Psion’s take over of Teklogix, Intermec’s of Norand and UBI, let alone the PSC Spectra Physics bankruptcy tell a story for those who remember.

    This must be great news for Metrologic,
    probably positive for Intermec, and good news
    for the auto ID sector as a whole.

    Worrying for those with complementary product offerings who have partnered heavily with Symbol such as Zebra. Symbol distributors and
    VARs will have an interesting time ahead.

    If Motorola can put its manufacturing muscle behind Symbol’s end client sectoral market expertise they can prosper. Whether they can manage it remains to be seen.

    It remains the case that the money is being made with bar code rather than RF-ID despite the fact all the media is interested in is RF-ID

    Richard Lucas

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