This from the ARRL:
ZCZC AX07
QST de W1AW
Special Bulletin 7 ARLX007
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT November 5, 2007
To all radio amateursSB SPCL ARL ARLX007
ARLX007 Motorola buys YaesuMotorola USA has announced its intention to launch a tender offer to acquire a controlling interest in Vertex Standard Co, Ltd. Vertex Standard is the parent company of Yaesu. Motorola will own 80 percent of Vertex Standard; Tokogiken, a privately held Japanese company, controlled by current president and CEO of Vertex Standard Jun Hasegawa, will retain 20 percent, forming a joint venture. The total purchase price for 80 percent of the outstanding shares on a fully diluted basis will be approximately US $108 million.
NNNN
/EX
What’s been most amusing about this is not the news itself, but all the speculation about what’s going to happen to Yaesu’s amateur radio line. It will be interesting to see what happens. I doubt very much that Motorola really wants to get into the amateur radio business, so the division will undoubtedly get sold off sooner or later. One would hope it would get sold to some people who really care about and know the amateur radio market, but the size of that market is really insignificant compared with other markets that I’m not hopeful about that.
Bob says
Yaesu makes a decent Vertex commerial series that now includes P25 VHF and UHF mobiles and handhelds. Competition elimination?
mike says
Good RF engineers are getting hard to find these days. I am not so sure that Motorola would sell off Yaesu rather than just redirecting their technical personnel and manufacturing infrastructure toward the RF stuff that they have traditionally done pretty well. At any rate, if you look at trends in amateur radio manufacturers, it seems to me that in a matter of time, Yeasu would have had to either go out of business or find another line of business to which they could transition. It isn’t a huge leap from amateur radio to land mobile so Motorola could use the convenience of buying Yaesu to: (a) get additional technical talent, (b) add to manufacturing capacity, (c) get Yeasu patents and knowledge, and (d) kill off a company that might just transform into a future competitor. Is it worth the immediate cost? I don’t know. Of course, I have no inside knowledge of what is really happening, but this seems logical to me.
Pete says
Motorola screws up most everything it touches these days. I hope they don’t do it again here.
Valerie says
I indeed doubt too that Motorola really wants to get into the amateur radio business. I’m one of those people who eagerly waited about what’s going to happen to Yaesu’s amateur radio line.
Ed KI0MX says
Perhaps some person or a group of people need to “Buy back” Yaesu/Vertex. This would in effect, safely keep Yaesu in the business of amateur radio.Peace.