Now let us praise Motorola. It's the #1 cell phone player in the U.S. (#2 and closing on Nokia worldwide) and 2) the #1 cable box/IP set-up/DVR maker (vs. Cisco's Scientific Atlanta). Combine those two critical consumer platforms with their recent design and innovation leadership, and that makes this Chicago-area giant among the most influential technology companies worldwide - with the likes of Apple and Samsung. Other divisions include communications infrastructure, semiconductors (spun off as Freescale in 2004), and soon more mobile-related content delivery with recent acquisitions of Symbol Technology (enterprise mobility and RFID), Good Technology (mobile computing) and Tut Systems (video encoding and distribution).
Motorola (originally Galvin Mfg) has played a role in many technology developments since the radio - the 'motor' portion of their name came from their car radio product. Lots of mission critical military communications (walkie-talkies), battery, chip innovations as well as early global wireless handsets and six sigma were created at Motorola. It was a family firm run by the Galvin's (Chris is now Chairman of NAVTEQ) until Ed Zander (former COO/President of Sun Microsystems) took the reigns of a turnaround in 2004.
Dimensions: 70,000 people x 78 years x $41B
Funding: Founders, probably; Public markets.
Customers: Phone companies, consumers, cable companies, carriers
Location: Chicago [Schaumburg] + www.motorola.com
