Motorola Solutions Announces Strategic Partnership and $1 Billion Investment by Silver Lake

Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI), the leading global provider of innovative mission-critical communications solutions for public safety and commercial customers, today announced that Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing, will make a $1 billion investment in Motorola Solutions. The company expects to use the Silver Lake investment to accelerate growth in its smart public safety solutions and services businesses through new partnerships, investments and acquisitions.

“Silver Lake has a proven track record of creating value by partnering with leading technology companies around the world,” said Greg Brown, chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions. “This strategic partnership and investment combine Silver Lake’s expertise in technology products, services and information solutions with our vision to create safer communities and more successful businesses. It represents a strong vote of confidence in our company’s strategy and future growth opportunities.”

Motorola Solutions serves more than 100,000 customers in 100 countries, including local, state and national public safety agencies as well as businesses in industries such as utilities, mining and transportation. The company’s communications technology portfolio includes devices used by professionals in the field, problem-solving software that drives effectiveness, mission-critical systems for command centers, network infrastructure and a range of services.

In connection with Silver Lake’s investment, Egon Durban and Greg Mondre, managing partners of Silver Lake, will be appointed to Motorola Solutions’ board of directors when the transaction closes, which is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2015.

“Motorola Solutions is an iconic company and the global market leader in public safety technology,” said Durban and Mondre. “We believe it is creating a new era in data-rich public safety communications and has significant potential for growth. Its core business is unrivaled in the United States and around the world with a broad and loyal customer base, an outstanding record of reliability, and growing reach and scale driven by technology innovation. Greg Brown and his talented management team have a strong record of performance and corporate transformation that has created exciting new opportunities to innovate and expand the company’s next-generation software, smart public safety and service offerings.”

Brown added, “The addition of Egon and Greg will provide our board with valuable insight and expertise as we grow through new partnerships, investments and acquisitions. Both have a history of working closely with management teams to create value by identifying and delivering unique business opportunities in the technology industry.”

Durban is a managing partner and managing director of Silver Lake, which he joined in 1999 as a founding principal. He is based in the firm's Menlo Park, Calif., office and has previously worked in the New York office as well as the London office, which he launched and managed from 2005 to 2010. Durban serves on the board of directors of Dell and Intelsat S.A., and is chairman of the board of directors of WME Entertainment. Durban graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor’s degree in finance.

Mondre joined Silver Lake in 1999 and is a managing partner and managing director based in New York. He currently serves as a director of Avaya, Inc., Go Daddy, Inc., Red Ventures, Sabre Holdings and Vantage Data Centers, and is on the operating committee of SunGard Capital Corp. Mondre graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Motorola Solutions also today announced its intent to repurchase up to $2 billion of stock through a tender offer, reflecting confidence in the future value of the business while maintaining considerable financial flexibility to pursue further growth. The company will fund the tender offer with a combination of existing cash on the company’s balance sheet and a portion of the proceeds from the $1 billion strategic investment by Silver Lake.

Under the terms of the agreement, Silver Lake is purchasing $1 billion aggregate principal amount of 2.0 percent convertible senior notes due 2020 with an initial conversion price of $68.50 per share. The initial conversion price represents a conversion premium of 17.0 percent over the volume-weighted average price of the company’s common stock sale price of $58.55 per share on the New York Stock Exchange during the 30 trading days ended Aug. 4, 2015. Additional information may be found in the Form 8-K that will be filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Goldman, Sachs & Co and J.P. Morgan acted as financial advisors to Motorola Solutions, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as Motorola Solutions’ legal advisor in the transaction.

DBO Partners served as financial advisors to Silver Lake, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acted as Silver Lake’s legal advisor.