Motorola

In 1974, Motorola introduced its first microprocessor, the 8-bit MC6800, used in automotive, computing, and video game applications. The 6800 is the basis for the more popular MOS Technology 6502 which was made by former Motorola employees. That year, Motorola sold its television business to the Japan-based Matsushita – the parent company of Panasonic.

In 1980, Motorola's next generation 32-bit microprocessor, the MC68000, led the wave of technologies that spurred the computing revolution in 1984, powering devices from companies such as Apple, Commodore, Atari, Sun, and Hewlett-Packard.

In September 1983, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the DynaTAC 8000X telephone, the world's first commercial cellular device. By 1998, cell phones accounted for two thirds of Motorola's gross revenue.

In 1986, Motorola acquired Storno resulting in a new range of innovative communication products for the new owner, including the NMT, an automatic cellular phone system, and made Motorola a more central player in the early stages of the GSM standardization process in 1987. This addition significantly strengthened Motorola's position in Europe. As Motorola's European development arm, Storno developed a GSM terminal in 1992.

On January 29, 1988, Motorola sold its Arcade, New York, facility and automotive alternators, electromechanical speedometers, and tachometers products to Prestolite Electric.

In 1993, Motorola acquired Indala, entering the access control industry like badge and badge readers. The Assa Abloy subsidiary HID Global acquired Indala from Motorola in late 2001.

In April 1994, Motorola announced that it would build a $90 million, 1,500,000-square-foot cellular phone manufacturing plant at 2001 North Division Street in Harvard, Illinois, promising 3,000–5,000 jobs to the area on a 400-acre site. The plant was opened in November 1996 was employing approximately 5,000 people. After it laid off 2,500 employees and halting manufacturing in early 2001, the facility was closed in April 2003 due to shifts to digital technology and lower-cost manufacturing sites.

In 1996, Motorola released the StarMax, a Macintosh clone with System 7. However, with the return of Steve Jobs to Apple in 1997, Apple released Mac OS 8. Because all clone manufacturer' licenses were valid only for System 7, they became unable to ship a current OS without renegotiation. A heated telephone conversation between Jobs and then Motorola CEO Christopher Galvin resulted in the termination of Motorola's clone contract, the discontinuation of the StarMax, and the long-favored Apple being demoted to "just another customer" mainly for PowerPC CPUs. Apple did not want Motorola to limit the PowerPC CPU supply so as retaliation, Apple and IBM expelled Motorola from the AIM alliance and forced Motorola to stop producing any PowerPC CPUs, leaving IBM to make all future PowerPC CPUs. However, Motorola was later reinstated into the alliance in 1998.

In 1997, Motorola announced a $140 million expansion of its two-way radio manufacturing plant in Plantation, Florida, with potential for 1,000 new jobs by 2004. In August 1999, Motorola announced a major $50 million expansion of its manufacturing plant in Dublin, Ireland to produce new GSM cellular phones. Production of Irish-produced cellular phones begin in September of the year, adding 500 jobs to the facility.

Neglect of the emerging digital cellular standards ended Motorola's dominance in mobile phone handsets in the second half of the 1990s. In 1996 it fell behind Ericsson in the growing market for digital phones in the U.S. In 1998, Motorola was overtaken by Nokia as the world's biggest seller of mobile phone handsets. The company was also struggling in microchips (which together with cell phones accounted for the majority of Motorola's revenue), cellular infrastructure equipment, and the Iridium satellite project that it had invested in. Motorola sold some businesses, including in 1999 a portion of its semiconductor business called the Semiconductor Components Group (SCG) and formed onsemi (then ON Semiconductor) in Phoenix, Arizona.

After 2000

By 2000, Motorola had shown signs of recovery from a long sustained period of decline. It was still, however, losing money on every handset sold, whereas Nokia was making large profits on each instead.

In June 2000, Motorola and Cisco supplied the world's first commercial GPRS cellular network to BT Cellnet in the United Kingdom. Motorola also developed the world's first GPRS cell phone.

In August 2000, Motorola acquired Printrak International Inc. for $160 million. In doing so, Motorola not only acquired computer aided dispatch and related software, but also acquired Automated fingerprint identification system software. With recent acquisitions from that year, Motorola reached its peak employment of 150,000 employees worldwide. Two years later, employment would be at 93,000 due to layoffs and spinoffs.

On December 6, 2000, as part of a $1 billion outsourcing agreement, Motorola announced it would sell two manufacturing plants located in Dublin, Ireland and Mt. Pleasant, Iowa to Celestica for $70 million. Also, Motorola announced it will cease pager manufacturing and lay off 800 employees at the Boynton Beach, Florida plant.

In February 2002, Motorola announced that it will cease manufacturing at the Plantation, Florida plant, shifting its two-way radio production to lower-cost countries. The 615,000-square-foot facility on an 80-acre site, which was opened in 1971, previously laid off 350 workers in May 2001. In September 2002, the company sold its 556,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Boynton Beach, Florida on a 90-acre site, to a group of Florida-based investors for approximately US$22 million.

The company's handset division began using the "Hello Moto" tagline in advertising in 2002 which later also became a signature ringtone. In June 2005, Motorola overtook the intellectual property of Sendo for $30,000 and paid £362,575 for the plant, machinery and equipment.

In June 2006, Motorola acquired the software platform (AJAR) developed by the British company TTP Communications plc. Later in 2006, the firm announced a music subscription service named iRadio. The technology came after a break in a partnership with Apple Computer (which in 2005 had produced an iTunes compatible cell phone ROKR E1, and most recently, mid-2007, its own iPhone). iRadio was to have many similarities with existing satellite radio services (such as Sirius and XM Radio) by offering live streams of commercial-free music content. Unlike satellite services, however, iRadio content would be downloaded via a broadband internet connection. However, iRadio was never commercially released.

Greg Brown became Motorola's chief executive officer in 2008. In October 2008, Motorola agreed to sell its Biometrics business to Safran, a French defense firm. Motorola's biometric business unit was headquartered in Anaheim, California. The deal closed in April 2009. The unit became part of Sagem Morpho, which was renamed MorphoTrak.

Split of Motorola

On March 26, 2008, Motorola's board of directors approved a split into two different publicly traded companies. This came after talk of selling the company to another corporation. These new companies would comprise the business units of Motorola Mobile Devices and Motorola Broadband & Mobility Solutions. Originally it was expected that this action would be approved by regulatory bodies and complete by mid-2009, but the split was delayed due to company restructuring problems and the 2008–2009 extreme economic downturn.

On February 11, 2010, Motorola announced it would separate into two independent, publicly traded companies. The cell phone and cable television equipment businesses would spin off to form Motorola Mobility, while the remainder of Motorola, Inc., which comprised the government and enterprise equipment businesses, would become Motorola Solutions. The split was closed on January 4, 2011. Motorola Mobility was eventually acquired by Google on May 22, 2012. Google later sold Motorola Mobility's cable equipment business to Arris Group in December 2012, and Motorola Mobility itself to Lenovo on October 30, 2014.