Motorola Inc. is moving and shaking with ambition and two news items this week point to a growth strategy that includes European markets for handsets and networks.
In public statements, Greg Brown, president of Motorola’s network and enterprise division, said that public-safety needs and fourth-generation infrastructure opportunities will enable his unit to compete with the vendor tie-ups between Siemens AG and Nokia Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc. and Alcatel S.A.
Brown said that Motorola’s recent $4 billion acquisition of Symbol Technologies Inc. will enable it to serve the wireless needs of hospitals, retailers and factories. Also, the largest European network operators such as Vodafone Group plc and Deutsche Telekom AG are beginning to allocate capital for 4G technologies, and Motorola aims to win a portion of that business.
Meanwhile, Motorola may be making overtures to Safran Group, which owns the France-based handset vendor, Sagem-apparently a money-loser that Safran would like to lose. In public statements while in France, Ron Garriques, president of Motorola’s mobile devices division, said that acquiring Sagem was an option in a consolidating sector. Whether Sagem is attractive for intellectual property, markets, distribution or other reasons isn’t clear.
Safran released a statement cautioning that while Motorola had stated interest in Sagem, it was considering other options to sustain its handset business. RCR
