Motorola calls it splits
By DPA, IANSTuesday, January 4, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO - Famed US tech company Motorola Tuesday split into two entities, with Motorola Mobility Holdings focusing on cellphones and television set-tops and Motorola Solutions focusing on barcode scanners, two-way and public-safety radios and other large scale corporate and governmental deployments.
The split came after Motorola spent more than 80 years as an autonomous company. Investors showed greater enthusiasm for Motorola Mobility whose shares rose $2.55, or 8.5 percent, to $32.80, while Motorola Solutions shares were up just seven cents at $37.55.
Motorola’s former co-CEO Sanjay Jha leads the cell phone business, which has revenues between $11-12 billion, while former co-CEO Greg Brown will lead Solutions, which has revenues between $8-9 billion.
Investors and analysts had long pushed for a company split, saying it would allow them to choose between the fast-growing but volatile handset business and the steadier market offered by two-way radios and other large scale services.
