Motorola Inc. sold more than 11.5 million shares of Nextel Communications Inc.’s class A common stock between June 8 and June 21 at an aggregate price of $32.04 per share and total proceeds of $369.5 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Motorola is the sole supplier of infrastructure equipment to Nextel’s iDEN network.
Following the sale, Motorola said it now owns 54.66 million shares of Nextel class A common stock constituting 4.86 percent of total outstanding Nextel class A shares. Motorola noted that because it now controls less than 5 percent of Nextel’s common stock, it will no longer be required to report future stock sales.
Motorola has sold more than 53.5 million Nextel shares since early 2003 for more than $1.1 billion. The company has previously stated the Nextel stock sales were designed to realize the appreciation benefit of its investment in Nextel.
Nextel’s stock was trading up 26 cents per share early Friday at $32.65 per share, while Motorola’s stock was trading down 6 cents per share at $18.20 per share.
Nextel is in the process of being acquired by Sprint Corp. for $35 billion. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter.
