Motorola to Pay $160 Million for Anaheim Software Firm

Motorola Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy Anaheim-based Printrak International Inc. for $160 million, gaining a maker of software that will improve fire and police dispatching on Motorola’s two-way radios.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola said it will pay $12.14 for each Printrak share. That’s 4.4% more than Printrak’s closing price Monday and a 36% premium to the price in the past two months.

Printrak had sales of $109.9 million last year. Its computer programs also help manage fingerprinting, photo storage and records. Motorola is one of the biggest sellers of two-way radios for voice and data used by police, fire departments, ambulance teams and other public-safety agencies.

Motorola, which had sales of $33.1 billion in 1999, didn’t say if it would acquire any debt. It expects to complete the transaction in the fourth quarter.

Motorola shares rose 25 cents to close at $35.75 in New York Stock Exchange trading. They had fallen 27% this year. Printrak rose 13 cents to close at $11.75 on Nasdaq. They have risen 21% this year.

Printrak, which has about 600 employees, including 310 in Orange County, would become a wholly owned Motorola subsidiary and continue to operate from its Anaheim headquarters. No job cuts are planned, Motorola said.

Printrak was founded in 1974 as a unit of Rockwell International Corp., which sold it to London-based De La Rue Group in 1981. The unit was sold in 1991 to a Printrak management team.