Enterprise mobility vendor Motorola Inc. has split the company in two, separating its high-risk consumer smart-phone business from its slow and steady mission-critical communications business, which includes enterprise and industrial-grade products such as two-way radios and bar-code scanners.
The two newly formed companies are consumer-focused Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and enterprise-oriented Motorola Solutions Inc. Both have begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols MMI and MSI, respectively.
In a 1-for-7 stock split, Motorola Inc. stockholders as of the close of business on Dec. 21, 2010, received one share of Motorola Mobility Holdings and seven shares of Motorola Solutions for every eight shares of Motorola common stock they held, the company said.
The decision to break up the company into two entities began in 2008 under pressure from Carl Icahn, a Motorola investor, who was responding to Motorola’s cell-phone slump following the introduction of the Apple iPhone and other smart phones that quickly overshadowed the company’s Razr. The Razr, which debuted in 2004, was also hampered by a slow business model, officials said.