NEW YORK — The long-planned breakup of Motorola, one of the founders of the U.S. electronics industry, came a step closer Monday with a deal to sell most of its wireless-networks division. The deal to sell the division for $1.2 billion to Nokia Siemens Networks, a Finnish-German joint venture, sets Motorola up to separate its cellphone-manufacturing operations from the police-radio business early next year, essentially dividing the 82-year-old company into three parts.
Motorola co-chief executive Greg Brown said the deal frees the company’s police-radio and bar-code-scanner division, a leader in the field, from being associated with the declining networks division, which supplies mainly older-generation equipment. The networks division had revenue of $896 million in the first quarter, with 43 percent of it coming from Asia. Operating earnings were $112 million.
Nokia Siemens CEO Rajeeve Suri said no layoffs were planned. Motorola said about 7,500 employees will be transferred to Nokia Siemens. Of those, about 1,600 are based in Illinois (Motorola’s headquarters is in Schaumburg). The division also has large development centers in India and China. The Associated Press; AP file photo
