Symbol-Motorola Deal: Meeting of the Minds

Solution providers welcomed news of Motorola's acquisition of Symbol Technologies, with hopes the deal will bring increased stability to Symbol and, in turn, more sales for the vendor's vast network of partners.

"It's a good story for the channel because there will be more marketing, products and technology horsepower," says David Crist, vice president of sales at Zebra Technologies, a mobile-printing vendor that has a multiyear alliance with Symbol to develop, market and sell solutions through the channel.

Motorola announced last month that it plans to buy Symbol for $3.9 billion, or $15 per share, to help it expand into the enterprise-mobility market. With the move, Motorola gains Symbol's experience in such areas as rugged mobile computing, data capture, RFID, and wireless infrastructure and mobility management. Symbol also brings a broad partner network and strength in a host of verticals, including retail, travel, transportation, manufacturing, wholesale distribution and health care.

Pending regulatory and shareholder approval, the deal should close later this year or in early 2007. If approved, Symbol would be a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola and would form the core of Motorola's new Networks and Enterprise division.

"I think it's ultimately going to be great," says Tim McEvoy, manager of business development for mobile solutions at Versatile Mobile Systems. "Over the past few years, Symbol has been working on getting its house in order after the problems it had in the late 1990s and early 2000s."

End users also see the move as a way for Symbol to gain stability.

"Symbol has had its challenges over the years, and that was the thing that concerned me most about having a long-term relationship with the company," says Allan Chandler, director of technology for Golden State Overnight (GSO), a delivery service in Alameda, Calif. "Symbol execs would come in here and talk about their broad strategic initiatives, and then they'd be gone two weeks later. With Motorola purchasing them, they have stability now on the corporate side."

GSO implemented a mobile solution from Symbol and solution provider Creative Concepts Software, which equipped the GSO fleet with more than 800 ruggedized handhelds to extend its back-end-operation-software tools to drivers.

Although most industry pundits agree the deal likely signals a positive change for the channel, it depends on how Motorola takes advantage of Symbol's resources.

"This is a good acquisition given that Motorola had plans to expand, and that it would have taken them a long time," says Ken Dulaney, vice president and an analyst at market-research firm Gartner, Stamford, Conn. "This deal gives them a real solid organization to build upon. For VARs, that could mean more products and maybe lower prices. The main thing to watch out for is how Motorola organizes after the acquisition. If they start to bustle Symbol into their organization, that's a bad thing, but if they build up Symbol and then add their own competitive pieces, that's a good thing because Motorola as an enterprise organization is generally weak."