Gadgets

Motorola Solutions Acquires Psion for $200 Million

Ishayat Ahmed

Psion, known for its PDAs and portable computers has been acquired by Motorola Solutions, Inc. for $200 million with a plan to help expand the latter's business. London, UK-based Psion is known as a leader in mobile computing solutions since 1980.

Motorola Solutions bought the company to strengthen its work with engineering companies. Sources said that this deal has been struck with the aim of bolstering Motorola's "toughened-up handhelds and in-car terminals," according to Engadget. The British company is mostly known for inventing the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) that grabbed the attention of many third-party software developers back then. Some of the iconic PDA series like Series 3 or Series 5 PDAs were manufactured by Psion.

It's still a mystery why Motorola planned to buy such a company unless they are planning to build a big fat Droid RAZR. "Psion is a compelling opportunity to strengthen our industry-leading, mobile-computing portfolio with ruggedized handheld products and vehicle-mount terminals that will deepen our presence in the global markets in which we compete." Greg Brown, CEO and chairman of Motorola Solutions said.

"The Psion directors are pleased to unanimously recommend this offer by Motorola Solutions at a price which offers a significant cash premium to both the current and recent market prices. Psion continues to successfully deliver on its strategy of introducing exciting new products while strictly managing the cost base. The offer by Motorola Solutions provides Psion's shareholders with certainty in an environment where certainty is in short supply," Psion Chairman John Hawkins said.

After the announcement of the deal, Motorola Solutions' share went up to 69 cents or 1.5% while Psion was up 45%. Psion worked as an independent company over the last 32 year but that is about to change now. The British company has customers spread across 50 countries and they announced revenue of $273 million in 2011.

 

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