Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Motorola, which has for several years promoted a vision of seamless mobility, is to pay $US3.9b in an all share transaction for Symbol Technologies which bills itself as "the enterprise mobility company".
On 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 says it intends to maintain Symbol's Holtsville, New York headquarters, an make this facility "the core of Motorola's global enterprise mobility business and...a centre of excellence."
"Motorola and Symbol share a common vision of providing enterprise mobility solutions. Symbol's world-class product platform complements Motorola's vision of seamless mobility and will be the core of Motorola's enterprise group," said Greg Brown, president of Motorola's Networks and Enterprise business. He claimed that combining "assets, expertise, customer and supplier bases and industry-leading products," would put Motorola at the forefront of enterprise mobility.
Motorola CEO, Ed Zander said: "We are confident that this transaction will create significant value for stockholders by establishing a strong presence for Motorola in attractive adjacencies with enormous potential for sustained growth."
Symbol Technologies "delivers products and solutions that capture, move and manage information in real time to and from the point of business activity." its enterprise mobility solutions integrate data capture products, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, mobile computing platforms, wireless infrastructure, mobility software and world-class services programs.
Despite the obvious fit between Symbol's expertise and the Motorola vision of seamless mobility the deal was greeted with some scepticism. One analyst was reported suggesting that Motorola shareholders might be less than impressed with their company taking on a business where margins are lower than cellular handsets, in which Motorola has been very successful of late.
The Financial Times noted that Symbol is the leading maker of handheld bar-code scanners, with almost 30 percent of the market, and of RFID tag readers, with 41 percent of the market, but added "the company's future has become the subject of mounting speculation since the technology crash five years ago which cut sales dramatically and sent Symbol's share price tumbling."
US-based Venture Development Corporation has produced a very timely and comprehensive analysis of the deal noting that, for Motorola, it means "more than just gaining access to Symbol Technologies' channel, technology and industry expertise."
According to VDC, "It is ultimately about how wireless solutions are being deployed and supported within enterprises today. Combining Motorola's market leading wireless infrastructure with Symbol Technologies' mobile client and I/O technologies could significantly accelerate the evolution of mobility within enterprises from a point solution to one more deeply rooted in today's enterprise."
David Bass
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