(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Motorola said it will acquire Symbol Technologies for about $3.9 billion in a deal that expands the world's second-largest mobile phone maker's presence in the market for business-oriented mobile devices.
The deal for Symbol, which makes portable bar-code scanners and customized handheld computers is expected to close in late 2006 or early 2007, pending regulator clearance and approval by Symbol shareholders, company officials said.
'This is a company we've been looking at for some time,' Motorola chairman and CEO Ed Zander said in a conference call from Symbol's headquarters in Holtsville, New York. 'We really had our hearts set on adding lots of critical mass and critical size inside the enterprise area and today we do that.'
Schaumburg-based Motorola said it would pay $15 per Symbol share.
That's 18% higher than Symbol's closing price of $12.71, before weekend news reports of an impending deal helped boost the stock to $14.67.
Symbol produces mobile devices for rugged business environments, as well as equipment based on the emerging wireless technology known as RFID which is used for inventory tracking and other purposes.
Motorola intends for Symbol to become the 'cornerstone' of the company's enterprise mobility business, said Symbol president and CEO Sal Iannuzzi. Symbol has about 5,200 workers, and in 2005 reported earnings of $32.3 million on sales of $1.77 billion.
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