Motorola Set for $3.9B Symbol Purchase

By Colleen Taylor -- Electronic News, 9/19/2006

In a move that brings together a shared vision of a digital, mobile world for enterprises, Motorola Inc. is set to acquire all outstanding shares of enterprise mobility technology provider Symbol Technologies Inc.

Under terms of the agreement, Motorola will pay $15 per share in cash, for a total equity value of approximately $3.9 billion on a fully-diluted basis the companies noted.

As of June 30, Symbol had approximately $200 million of net cash.

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 said it intends to maintain Symbol's Holtsville, N.Y. headquarters, which will be the new core of Motorola's global enterprise mobility business.

Symbol designs, develops, manufactures and services 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.

"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," Motorola's chairman and CEO, Ed Zander, said in a statement.

The transaction is expected to be accretive to Motorola's earnings per share in the first year following closing, excluding certain non-cash charges relating to amortization associated with acquired intangibles and other one- time accounting and transaction-related costs.

The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory approval and the approval of Symbol's stockholders, and is expected to be completed late this year or early next year.

Motorola said the acquisition of Symbol will not affect the pace of its share repurchase activity.

In July, the company completed the $4 billion share buyback program that it first announced in May 2005, which had authorized the buyback of up $4.5 billion of its outstanding shares of common stock over the next 36 months.