By Wailin Wong |
Motorola Inc. said Tuesday that it has completed one debt buyback of
$138 million and increased the size of its repurchase program to $500
million from $400 million.

In late May, Schaumburg-based Motorola announced it had launched two
offers to buy back up to $400 million in outstanding debt. One, which
involves bonds due in 2097, expired Monday. The $138 million tendered by
bondholders in the offer represents about 55 percent of the $252
million outstanding in the 2097 series.

The other offer, which involves an auction process, expires June 21 and aims to buy back three series of bonds due in 2025, 2028 and 2037. Motorola has set $362 million as the maximum amount of debt it will buy back in this offer. There is a combined $1.1 billion of that debt outstanding.

Last week, Motorola Co-Chief Executive Greg Brown told investors at a conference that the company has a $500 million debt payment due in November. After that payment and the completion of the buyback program, the company’s debt is expected to be approximately $3 billion at the end of the 2010, Brown said. He made his remarks before Motorola raised its debt buyback amount to $500 million. The company had about $3.9 billion in debt and $8.5 billion in cash at the end of the first quarter.