Motorola (NYSE:MOT) kept busy this past week. In addition to offering to buy Symbol Technologies (NYSE:SBL) for $3.9 billion, the company announced that it was rolling out a series of "robotic stores" -- vending machine-like units that would sell Motorola products in malls and airports.
The bigger and more significant of the two stories was the possible acquisition of Symbol Technologies, a company that makes bar-code readers, product-tracking devices, and other handheld computers that are used to track shipments and inventory.
The deal is not yet final, and it's possible that Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Siemens (NYSE:SI), or Nokia (NYSE:NOK) could tender counterbids, but I like the move for a couple of reasons.
First, although the offer is $15 a share -- 15% more than the company's market value prior to the announcement -- the acquisition would double Motorola's share of the mobile enterprise market.
It's clear to me that management understands there's a huge market in the business world for using cellphones and other handheld devices for a lot more than just making calls and sending email.
Motorola further understands that since Symbol also makes RFID (radio frequency identification) products, the acquisition will help it expand into this emerging market. After all, Symbol's RFID technology will fit quite nicely into the WiMax environment that Motorola is working to develop with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S).
For instance, a few weeks ago I wrote about how Motorola developed a new sensing technology that could be incorporated onto RFID chips, allowing handheld devices to detect even the slightest change in a number of variables. Among other uses, this technology would allow a food distributor to detect whether its product was experiencing a change because of temperature or humidity.
The acquisition, however, has another potential side benefit. Because Symbol also has a strong sales channel, it will allow Motorola to increase its sales into the health-care, retail, and manufacturing sectors.
It's my opinion that if McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) has already figured out how to print low-cost RFID tags onto its wrappers to allow its customers to count the calories in its products, other businesses will be able to think up even more innovative uses to increase productivity. This, in turn, should fuel more demand for Motorola products.
The second story about the new "robotic stores," dubbed "InstantMoto," was equally interesting. While it's unlikely it will be able to match the retail presence that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has achieved with its stores, the vending machines offer a low-risk way to raise the visibility of Motorola's products, such as the Razr and the Q phone products, and make it more convenient for consumers to buy those items.
All in all, the two moves suggest to me that Motorola is aggressively looking to both expand what its products will be capable of doing in the future and simultaneously get its products into more people's hands. And that seems to me to be a recipe for future stock appreciation.
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Fool contributor Jack Uldrich has purchased a razor from a vending machine before, but is unsure if he'd buy a RAZR. He owns stock in Intel and Motorola. The Fool has a strict disclosure policy.
