Zebra Technologies May Acquire Motorola Solutions For $3.5B (Updated)

Update: The companies confirmed that Zebra Technologies is buying Motorola Solutions’ handheld unit for $3.45 billion.

Motorola Solutions may sell its enterprise division to Zebra Technologies in a deal worth about $3.5 billion, according to a report in the Financial Times. The acquisition, which may be announced on Tuesday, would produce a company that could generate annual sales of about $3.5 billion.

Motorola Solutions is the telecommunications company that was formed after Motorola’s mobile unit was spun off into Motorola Mobility in 2011. Zebra Technologies makes barcode printing supplies and inventory management tools for Amazon and other companies, as well as tracking technology used by sports teams to gauge player performance. TechCrunch has contacted both companies for comment.

The acquisition of Motorola Solutions could potentially fuel Zebra’s Zatar unit, which launched in fall 2013 to create browser-based cloud technology that will help companies use “Internet of Things” products in their operations.

In a press release at the time, Zebra said “the increased use of cloud computing and the ubiquity of wireless networks have made connecting devices and sensors more appealing and cost-efficient. This has fueled the rapid growth of the Internet of Things and the race to connect devices and sensors that can be remotely monitored, managed and mined for valuable data.”

Photo by Marieke IJsendoorn-Kuijpers on Flickr used under a Creative Commons 2.0 license