Motorola Solutions sells enterprise unit to Zebra for $3.45B

Motorola is chopping off another one of its arms.

Motorola Solutions, the remainder of the company after Moto’s handset unit spun out in 2011 as Motorola Mobility, announced today that it’s selling its enterprise business to Zebra Technology for $3.45 billion.

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The deal will allow Motorola Solutions to focus entirely on its government and public safety division. And it gives Zebra, which makes the RFID tags and barcodes that Motorola’s enterprise devices scan, the components to become an asset tracking behemoth.

“We were were always [working on] both sides of the same problem,” Philip Gerskovich, Zebra’s senior vice president of new growth products, told VentureBeat in an interview. “We sold together … we had a similar go-to-market channel … the two companies have been very complimentary for many years.”

Zebra also worked together with Symbol Technologies for more than a 15 years, before Motorola snapped up that company in 2007 to build its enterprise asset tracking business.

“We’re investing in how the Internet of Things makes assets smarter,” Gerskovich said. “With Motorola’s new Android smartphone-based rugged devices, I think it’s the ideal place for enterprises to deploy [asset tracking].”

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Zebra says it will pay $200 million in cash and $3.25 billion raised from a credit facility and debt security sales.

Motorola Solutions doesn’t get as much publicity as the Mobility division (which was sold to Google in 2011 and then to Lenovo earlier this year), primarily because it houses all of Motorola’s non-consumer offerings.

CEO Greg Brown says the company decided to sell off its enterprise division after realizing it didn’t mesh as well as previously thought with its government division.

“Going forward, we will have absolute clarity of purpose and mission as we serve customers globally with our suite of mission-critical communications solutions. This business is truly distinctive in its industry leadership, strong pipeline position, long-term track record of consistent profitability and cash flow, and an array of growth opportunities.”

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