Motorola Solutions announces $1 billion investment from Silver Lake private-equity firm

Early this year, multiple media outlets reported that Motorola Solutions considered selling the company. When asked whether the Silver Lake investment represents a change in strategy, Brown said he believes it is another step in the company’s ongoing plan.

“I think our focus has always been on growing the business and adding capacity and competency,” Brown said. “I think it’s a logical extension of the path that we’ve outlined, which is optimizing our balance sheet, which is a big part of today, improving the operating and the financial performance of the company, which is also a big part of today, building backlog, which gives us momentum for growth.

“So, I look at this as a continuation of what’s been my focus and management’s focus, which is growing this company.”

When asked whether the Silver Lake partnership would create new business opportunities, Brown said he believes the investment will help Motorola Solutions be better positioned to pursue its existing strategy.

“I don’t think they’re new business opportunities,” Brown said. “I think the Silver Lake deal is more about bringing additional capacity for us to go achieve them and go seize them. As somebody mentioned earlier, this is exactly consistent with what we outlined in our Financial Analyst Day in February.

“So this is all about doubling down on software and services—more specifically, Smart Public Safety Software and our Services business. I don’t think it’s new. I think it’s a reaffirmation of our commitment and an acceleration therein.”

With the announcement of the buyback of as much as $2 billion in Motorola Solutions stock, the company is committing a total of $3.5 billion toward stock repurchases in 2015.

“This represents an important step towards significantly improving our balance sheet and returning more capital to shareholders, and is incremental to the $8.7 billion in share repurchase and $1.1 billion in dividends that we’ve returned over the past four years,” Brown said. “Our strong balance sheet and cash flow allows us to maintain our investment-grade rating and our ability to drive the growth of our business through strategic acquisitions and investments in innovation. This accelerated return of capital reflects our confidence in the growth prospects and future value of the company”