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Motorola Solutions buys Icahn shares

by Lou Whiteman  |  Published February 27, 2012 at 1:05 PM
Motorola Solutions Inc. said Monday, Feb. 27, that it bought $1.17 billion worth of shares from Carl Icahn, effectively ending the billionaire investor's involvement in Motorola after more than five years.

Schaumburg Ill.-based Motorola Solutions, a provider of public safety radios and other communications products for enterprise and government customers, said it had purchased 23.739 million shares of its stock for $49.15 per share. The company made the purchases under its existing $3 billion repurchase plan.

As of Dec. 31 Icahn held 38.3 million shares of Motorola Solutions.

The stock traded down less than 1%, or 26 cents, on Monday morning at $49.17.

Icahn has had a mixed track record pressuring companies, failing in recent efforts to persuade companies including Clorox Co., Dynegy Inc., Mentor Graphics Corp. and Commercial Metals Co. to find buyers.

But his involvement in Motorola was a triumph. The investor first bought into what was then Motorola Inc. in 2007, and pushed successfully for a breakup of the company.

Motorola in late 2010 spun out its cellphone and television set-top boxes unit Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., and Icahn recorded a significant windfall when that company announced plans to be acquired by Google Inc. for $12.5 billion last August.

Icahn last summer when the Google deal was announced said "Motorola is activism at its best and we applaud management and the board for acting so responsibly."

As part of this latest share deal, Motorola said that Icahn Enterprises GP Inc. general partner Vincent J. Intrieri has agreed to resign from the company's board of directors.

Motorola Solutions chairman and CEO Greg Brown in a statement said that Intrieri's "contributions, along with Carl's, have been constructive and are appreciated."
 


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Tags: Carl Icahn | Clorox Co. | Commercial Metals Co. | Dynegy Inc. | Google Inc. | Greg Brown | Icahn Enterprises GP Inc. | Mentor Graphics Corp. | Motorola Inc. | Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. | Motorola Solutions Inc. | Vincent J. Intrieri

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