Zebra Buys Motorola – What Does It Mean For You?

In April, Zebra announced that they are to buy Motorola Enterprise Solutions for $3.5 Billion. This announcement marks yet another owner for the barcode giant. From 1973 to 2007 the company was known as Symbol Technologies and was the major player in the barcode industry. After an accounting scandal, Motorola purchased Symbol in 2007 and their dominance seems to have been ebbing since then. While their barcode and handheld devices are still a very big player in the market, the company has seen major losses in their market share to Honeywell and others.

Zebra are best known for their barcode label printers and there are many complements between the two companies, and equipment from both companies has long been used together in the field. In many ways this is a natural progression for Zebra in that they can expand from being known only as a printer company.

However for customers and end users this merger may not be all sweetness and light. The merger marks yet more consolidation within the industry which has seen many companies swallowed up by others. In last few years industry names such as Welch Allyn, Metrologic, PSC, LXE and Intermec have all been taken over by larger competitors. Although some new, smaller companies are emerging, this latest merger leaves just a few dominant players – Zebra, Honeywell and, to a lesser extent, Datalogic – in the barcode industry. The available choices in the barcode field seem to be diminishing fast!