Motorola has finally put to bed a five-month old dispute with Russian authorities over thousands of confiscated Motorola cell phones. The dispute was clear cut: Russian authorities believed the phones—more than 165,000 of them worth more than $15 million—were illegally imported. Motorola disagreed, claiming the phones were imported by a licensed Russian retailer.

The disagreement got sticky when police destroyed about 50,000 of the phones, saying they were a radioactive health hazard. In response, Motorola claimed the test used to make that determination was flawed.

This week, though, Russian police returned the remaining phones to Motorola, which declined to seek compensation for those that didn't survive the dispute. That's good news for the company and its Russian partners. Motorola's executive vice president Ron Garriques said in a statement that the company would "continue to increase investments and develop partnerships in Russia."
— Suzanne Stevens

Join Corporate Dealmaker's LinkedIn forum