For Motorola, Symbol Deal is All Business
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By Mike Hughlett, Chicago Tribune  Sep. 20--Sure, a bar code reader lacks the "wow" appeal of a sleek cell  phone, but Motorola Inc. needs gadgets to beef up sales to business, too, not  just consumers.
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(InfoWorld) - A troubled Motorola has realigned itself as its criticalÂ cell-phone business slows down. The company sketched out the reorganization in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday, two days before it is set to announce its second-quarter financial results. Last week, Motorola slashed its earlier revenue forecast for the quarter and predicted a larger loss, blaming lower phone sales. It also named a new chief of its mobile unit, Stu Reed. Other recent changes in the executive ranks have also rocked the company. Motorola is now split into three divisions: Mobile Devices, Home and Networks Mobility, and Enterprise Mobility Solutions. The company is moving its Good Technology mobile e-mail software business from the Mobile Devices division into Enterprise Mobility Solutions. Its carrier equipment business has been combined with home broadband products in the Home and Networks Mobility segment with the new enterprise unit focusing on private network products. The Home and Networks Mobility group is responsible for set-top boxes and digital video systems for carriers, home DSL and cable modems, and wired and wireless broadband network gear. The Enterprise group encompasses analog and digital two-way radio and other voice and data communications systems for government, businesses and Motorola's large public safety customer base. Good Technology, whichÂ Motorola acquiredÂ in a deal completed in February, is a mobile messaging platform with enterprise features like centralized lockdown of unwanted applications on the phone. It competes against Research in Motion's BlackBerry system and Nokia's Intellisync technology. After the rousing success of the slim Razr handset, which started out as a premium-priced bauble and quickly became a mass-market commodity, Motorola has had trouble coming out with an encore. A Razr 2 is expected later this year. New handsets from Nokia, Samsung, and LG Electronics had stolen the spotlight even before Apple's iPhone, which debuted June 29, became the talk of the industry. Meanwhile, sales for all makers have stagnated in higher-priced markets like North America and Europe while rising in lower-priced India and China, according to industry analysts. Last Wednesday, Motorola said it expected to report 35 million to 36 million handset sales in the second quarter, down from 45.5 million in the previous quarter. Its revenue forecast dropped from $9.4 billion to between $8.6 billion and $8.7 billion. The company now expects to lose between $0.02 and $0.04 in the quarter.
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Motorola has to find a way to make cool phones that people want to buy, or else face the possibility that its mobile business will be sold off.
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Motorola Inc.  is planning to  sell $1.0 billion debt in a three-part offering as early as  Monday, said a market source familiar with the sale.
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Aruba Networks&#160;countersued two divisions of Motorola&#160;Wednesday, adding a new twist to a wireless LAN (local area network) patent-infringement case that affects some of the biggest vendors in the business.Symbol Technologies and Wireless Valley Communications, both of which are now&#160;owned by&#160;Motorola, sued Aruba&#160;in August. They claimed Aruba knowingly used technology covered by several patents they own, and are seeking an injunction and damages.But in its response to their complaint, filed Wednesday, Aruba claimed Symbol knew enough about Aruba&#39;s products in 2003 to say they might be infringing Symbol&#39;s pending patents. Aruba also argues both Symbol and Wireless Valley withheld information they were required to give to patent examiners. As a result, the patents are invalid and Symbol and Wireless Valley&#39;s complaints should be dismissed, the company said.Aruba also countersued, seeking declaratory judgments that it didn&#39;t infringe and that the patents are invalid and unenforceable. Aruba wants Symbol and Wireless Valley to pay the costs of the suit and its attorney fees.In 2003, when Symbol was an independent company, it came close to buying Aruba, according to the filing. Throughout the first half of that year, as the companies discussed the proposed deal, Symbol had &quot;essentially unfettered access&quot; to information about how Aruba&#39;s products were designed and made, Aruba said. Among the engineers inspecting its technology was the inventor on two of the patents involved in the suit, they said. The talks eventually broke off because the companies couldn&#39;t agree on terms, the filing said.Aruba argued that Symbol never warned it might sue over the patents, leading Aruba to infer that it didn&#39;t intend to enforce any patent rights. The company waited for four years after that inspection and then sued without warning on the eve of an Aruba quarterly earnings announcement, Aruba said. In addition, both Symbol and Wireless Valley knew about Aruba&#39;s business for years and should have known about the activities it sued over, yet only sued after Aruba had invested tens of millions of dollars in designing and testing its products, the company said.&#160;
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Japan's top cellphone operator NTT DoCoMo and US telecoms giant Motorola announced a deal to jointly develop a third-generation handset for business users, marking the American company's first major foray into the lucrative Japanese mobile phone market.
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Canât meet price, or see point Mobile Handset Analyst (PDF) is reporting that Motorola has decided not to compete in the GSMA-sponsored extension to the Emerging Market Handset: 3G for All.â¦
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Symbol Technologies Inc. , a  maker of bar code and inventory scanning technology, is  auctioning itself, and mobile phone company Motorola Inc.   is the most likely buyer, the Wall Street Journal  reported on Saturday.
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Motorola Inc. MOT.N on Tuesday said   it had agreed to buy Symbol Technologies Inc. SBL.N, a maker   of bar code and inventory scanning technology, for about $3.9   billion in cash to expand its opportunities with corporate   customers.
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Motorola Inc. is acquiring MeshNetworks Inc., developer of a technology that makes it easy to set up and expand wireless networks, in a deal expected to help the world's No. 2 cell phone maker win more government business.
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Motorola is the latest company to move towards adding a payment function to its line of cell phones, the company announced this week.
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Mobile phone firm Motorola is buying Symbol Technologies, a maker of barcode scanning systems, for $3.9bn.
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MotorolaÂ has agreed to buy MeshNetworks, a developer of technology and products for rapidly deployed, self-creating wireless mobile networks.
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Motorola's latest move against its rival is a lawsuit.
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In its biggest acquisition since 2000, Motorola on Tuesday announced plans to acquire Symbol Technologies for $3.9 billion. The deal will bolster Motorola's sale of wireless handheld devices to enterprises, as well as its position in the RFID market.
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Strong sales of its latest mobile phones help Motorola report strong profits ahead of Wall Street expectations.
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Motorola is completing a spinoff of its chip operations, now operating independently as Freescale Semiconductor. A Motorola spokeswoman says that has made some corporate positions unnecessary.