Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is a global communications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

History

The company started as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928. The name Motorola was adopted in 1947, but the word had been used as a trademark since the 1930s. Founder Paul Galvin came up with the name Motorola when his company started manufacturing car radios. A number of early companies making phonographs, radios, and other audio equipment in the early 20th century used the suffix "-ola", the most famous being Victrola; there was also a company that made jukeboxes called Rockola, and a film editing device called a Moviola.

Many of Motorola's products have been radio-related, starting with a battery eliminator for radios, through the first walkie-talkie in the world, defense electronics, cellular infrastructure equipment, and mobile phone manufacturing. The company was also strong in semiconductor technology, including integrated circuits used in computers. Motorola has been the main supplier for the microprocessors used in Commodore Amiga, Apple Macintosh and Power Macintosh personal computers. The chip used in the latter computers, the PowerPC family, was developed with IBM, and in a partnership with Apple (known as the AIM alliance). Motorola also has a diverse line of communication products, including satellite systems, digital cable boxes and modems.

On October 6, 2003, Motorola announced that it would spin off its semiconductor product sector into a separate company called Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.. The new company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on July 16th of the following year.

The Six Sigma quality system was developed at Motorola even though it became most well known because of its use by General Electric. It was created under the direction of Bob Galvin, the son of founder Paul Gavin, when he was running the company, by engineer Bill Smith. Motorola University is one of many places that provides Six Sigma training.

Recently, a massive turnaround plan has been executed successfully by CEO Edward Zander, although many credit former CEO Chris Galvin with taking the first comprehensive steps. Due to recent layoffs and the spinoff of Freescale Semiconductor, the number of employees working for Motorola has gone from just over 150,000 to approximately 66,000. Motorola has recently been regaining market share in the cellular-phone business from Nokia, Samsung and others due to stylish new cellular phone designs like the Motorola RAZR V3. The company also unveiled the first ever iTunes phone, the Motorola ROKR E1, in September 2005, and the Motorola SLVR in January 2006. Motorola has recently announced its new iRadio music service as a potential substitute for iTunes compatibility.