Motorola acquires Symbol for $3.9 billion
Mobile phone giant spends billions buying Symbol to boost its vertical presence

Motorola is the latest company to loosen its purse strings by shelling out $3.9 billion for barcode whiz Symbol Technologies.
As yet it is unclear just how much impact this acquisition will have on market dynamics, particularly on Symbol's competitors like arch rival Psion.
The mobile phone giant today announced the move, which should cement its market leadership by bolstering its enterprise mobility capabilities in addition to opening up a wider pool of partners and customers, particularly in vertical sectors.
The company hopes to close the deal by early next year, after which Symbol will become a core part of Motorola's Networks and Enterprise business.
"Motorola and Symbol share the same vision of a digital, mobile world for enterprises that matches the world people enjoy at home and at play," said Motorola chairman and chief executive, Ed Zander.
"Everything is going digital, and everything digital is going mobile - this is especially evident in the way businesses are run today."
Marco Landi, senior director for Symbol EMEA described the merger as a 'natural fit' for both companies.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2026 report - the leading resource for IT decision-maker insight on priorities and investment areas in AI, security and more.
He said: "Combining Symbol's developments in rugged mobile devices with Motorola's innovative enterprise mobile technology will create an enhanced range of devices for the ever growing number of businesses with a workforce that needs to be on the move.
Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.
Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.
-
What the shift to 'tiny teams' could mean for software engineersNews The influx of AI tools means many firms could create smaller, more agile teams to speed up development processes
-
Apple’s iOS update cycle overhaul: How security teams should reactApple’s more rapid approach to patch releases follows a wider industry trend. What can security leaders do to keep up?