Sources: Motorola Solutions exploring going up for sale
The leaders of Motorola Solutions Inc., the longtime Schaumburg-based maker of two-way radios and other communications equipment, are exploring a possible sale of the company, people familiar with the matter said.
But Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson said neither he nor his staff were made aware of the prospect.
In fact, Larson said his staff met with Motorola on Friday morning but were not told of the news.
Larson said he heard about the idea of selling the company Friday evening from Village Manager Brian Townsend, after Townsend read the report in a business publication.
Kurt Ebenhoch, a Motorola Solutions spokesman, said the company doesn't comment on rumors and speculation.
Larson said Friday morning's meeting with Motorola included Townsend, Community Development Director Julie Fitzgerald, and Paula Hewson, the assistant village manager.
"They said they had a real good meeting with them about future plans for the headquarters over there on the site and the fact that they weren't going to sell a property to Zurich (Insurance)," Larson said.
Zurich Insurance had an option to purchase a property at the intersection of Algonquin Road and Meacham Road but decided not to exercise that option.
During that meeting, "we didn't have any indication, any clue, any suggestion somehow that this was going to take place," Larson said.
"It never came up for discussion. Nothing was ever suggested or came up about selling the company. That's a surprise."
Larson added, "You would think something like that would be something that they would want Schaumburg to be privy to."
Larson said Townsend indicated Friday night that he would be calling Paul Newman, Motorola's liaison to the village.
"Apparently, we'll find out tomorrow," he said.
Buyers of the company could include private-equity firms and companies including Raytheon Co., Honeywell International Inc., and General Dynamics Corp., said one of the people, asking not to be named because the information is confidential. The company has a market value of about $15.6 billion.
The shares jumped as much as 8.3 percent to $70 in after-hours trading, after closing at $64.66 in New York.
Motorola Solutions is the product of a 2011 breakup of Motorola Inc., which came after investors led by billionaire Carl Icahn sought to shake up the company's performance. The mobile-phone unit was spun off as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and initially moved to Libertyville, then was sold to Google Inc., which then sold the handset business to Lenovo Group Ltd. in 2014. It now is based in Chicago.
Founded in 1928 as the Galvin Manufacturing Corp., Motorola's first product was a device that allowed battery-powered radios to run on household electricity. Motorola Solutions now makes bar-code scanners and offers technology services to clients including Prince George's County in Maryland and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Despite profits, the company last fall announced plans for cost-cutting measures including layoffs and the sale of more land at its 286-acre Schaumburg campus. It already has sold 39 acres for the new Zurich North America headquarters and 9 acres to the Illinois Tollway Authority for tollway expansion.
For 2014, the company reported profit of $1.3 billion, or $5.29 per share. Revenue was reported as $5.88 billion.
Motorola Solutions is working with financial advisers as it seeks a buyer, the people said. A transaction isn't imminent, though a sale process has been underway for several months, one of the people said.
The deal for Google's $12.4 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility, announced just months after the split, marked an end as an independent company for a company that helped pioneer mobile phones and introduced its first consumer handset in the early 1980s.
Google, after subsequently selling off the set-top business, announced early last year it would sell the remains of Motorola Mobility - excluding the majority of the patents - to Chinese PC Maker Lenovo.
In February 2012, Motorola Solutions bought $1.17 billion of its shares from Icahn and said his representative on its board would step down. Existing shareholders include ValueAct Capital Management and Blackrock Inc.
Raytheon in November acquired Blackbird Technologies, a surveillance and cybersecurity company, for $420 million to bolster its intelligence business. In a Jan. 29 interview, Raytheon Chief Financial Officer Dave Wajsgras said the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company will pursue other deals, with an emphasis on expanding its cyber capabilities and electronic warfare business.
"We will continue to focus on technology-based acquisitions in areas that we see we can expand our markets and build off of our technology foundation," he said.
Pamela Erickson, a spokeswoman for Raytheon, didn't immediately comment, while Robert Ferris, a spokesman for Honeywell, declined to comment. Lucy Ryan, a spokeswoman for General Dynamics, couldn't be reached outside of normal business hours.
• Bloomberg contributed to this report.