Motorola Solutions Buys $1.2 Billion of Stock From Icahn as Intrieri Quits

By Cecile Daurat - Feb 27, 2012 9:06 PM GMT+0700

Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI), which split in two a year ago following pressure from investors led by Carl Icahn, said it bought $1.17 billion of its stock from the billionaire investor and some of his affiliates.

As part of the transaction, Vincent J. Intrieri, a director of Icahn Enterprises G.P. Inc., has agreed to resign from the board, Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola Solutions said today in a statement.

Icahn pushed Motorola to spin off its mobile-phone unit on Jan. 4, 2011 after four years of agitating for change. Motorola Solutions had gained 24 percent since the separation before today, outperforming the 7.5 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The spun-off business, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., is being bought by Google Inc. for $12.5 billion.

Motorola Solutions purchased 23.7 million of its common stock at $49.15 apiece, as part of a $3 billion buyback program, according to the statement.

Shares of the maker of radio equipment for emergency workers and scanning devices for retailers fell 0.2 percent to $49.43 on Feb. 24.

Icahn built his reputation as a corporate raider in the 1980s targeting companies such as Phillips Petroleum Co., Texaco Inc. and Trans World Airlines Inc. He recently sparred with management at Time Warner Inc. and Clorox Co. He often spends years holding stocks as he waits for investments to pay off.

As of Jan. 1, Icahn Associates Corp. owned 38.3 million shares of Motorola Solutions, the largest stockholder in the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cecile Daurat in Wilmington at cdaurat@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Cecile Daurat at cdaurat@bloomberg.net