Motorola Inc. isn’t officially breaking into two companies until Jan. 4, but shares of the two successor companies will start trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange on a “when issued” basis.
The company is splitting into Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., which will take the cell-phone and set-top-box manufacturing businesses, and Motorola Solutions Inc., which contains the more government- and corporate-facing parts of the company. It makes things such as police radios and bar-code scanners.
The breakup is motivated by the desire to present two simple stories to investors, rather than one complicated one.
Shareholders of record on Dec. 21 will receive one share of Motorola Mobility on Jan. 4 for every eight shares they held of Motorola Inc., which will go through a 1-for-7 reverse split into Motorola Solutions shares.
On Thursday, Motorola shares closed at $8.88, up 41 cents, or 4.8 percent. Earlier in the day, the shares hit $8.95, the highest level in a year.
Motorola Mobility will start trading Friday as “MMI.WI,” and Motorola Solutions will be “MSI.WI.” The “WI” for “when issued” will fall away Jan. 4.
The businesses that will become Motorola Mobility had $2.9 billion in sales in the most recent quarter, compared with $1.9 billion for Motorola Solutions. However, the $321 million in operating earnings at Solutions dwarfed the $3 million Mobility made.
