Motorola Mobility to join S&P 500 after spin-off

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. will join the Standard & Poor's 500 Index after the close of trading on Jan. 3, replacing Meredith Corp., S&P said in a statement.

Meredith will replace Cincinnati Bell Inc. in the S&P MidCap 400 Index, and Cincinnati Bell will go into the S&P SmallCap 600 in place of Penford Corp., the statement said. Motorola Inc. is spinning off Motorola Mobility around the date the changes will be made, S&P noted.

“Meredith's $1.6 billion market capitalization, and Cincinnati Bell's $480 milion market capitalization, make these two companies more representative of the mid-cap and small-cap space, respectively,” S&P's statement said. “Penford, with a market capitalization of less than $80 million, ranks 600th in the S&P Small Cap 600 Index.”

The S&P 500 has risen 13 percent this year to 1,258.84, the highest level since Sept. 8, 2008. A gauge of information- technology companies in the index, the category to which Motorola Mobility will be added, has gained 9.5 percent in 2010 for the third-worst performance of 10 industry groups.

Motorola Mobility, a smartphone maker based in Libertyville, Illinois, said in a statement today that it bought software company Zecter Inc. to help consumers transfer music more easily between its handsets and other devices. It is to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 4 with the ticker MMI.