Zebra Technologies buys Motorola's enterprise unit for $3.5 billion

Barcode printer maker Zebra Technologies has agreed to buy Motorola Solutions Inc’s enterprise business for $3.5 billion in cash, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.

The deal was agreed in the past few days and could be announced as early as Tuesday, the newspaper said. Motorola Solutions’ enterprise business, which makes rugged mobile computers and tablets for businesses, has struggled as companies delay orders and cut down on spending.

Sales in Motorola’s enterprise business rose to $736 million from $733 million, for the fourth-quarter ended December 31.

Zebra is based in Lincolnshire, Illinois and specialises in barcode, receipt, kiosk, and RFID printers and supplies for businesses. It’s best known for providing the tracking technology used by the likes of Amazon to track inventory and by athletes to track their performance.

Late last year, the company bought over Hart Systems, cloud-based provider of physical inventory management solutions, for approximately $94 million in cash. On more than one occasion, Zebra has hinted at making a bigger play for the Internet Of Things market, which it hopes to sell to companies for better management of inventory and better product tracking.

With inputs from Reuters