Pace fails to land Motorola Home

SET-TOP boxer maker Pace has missed out on Google’s Motorola Home business which has been sold in a deal worth around £1.5bn.

Saltaire-based Pace said it could not reach agreement on a deal for Motorola Home which has been bought by cable-equipment maker Arris.

Pace chief executive Mike Pulli said: “We have made significant progress in developing our business over the past 12 months by being relentless in pursuing the strategy we announced in November 2011. That strategy is to transform our core economics, build on our position as the global leader in PayTV hardware and widen out our business into software, services and integrated solutions.
 
“We viewed the potential acquisition of Google’s Motorola Home business as an opportunity to accelerate our stated strategy, but only if real shareholder value could be delivered. Although we had the support of our major shareholders and committed facilities, we could not reach an appropriate conclusion to the potential transaction.”

Arris has paid £1.26bn ($2.05bn) in cash and £184.5m ($300m) in shares that will give Google a 15.7% stake in the business.

Google bought Motorola Home as part of a wider £7.7bn ($12.5bn) deal for Motorola Mobility Holdings in May. The sale of Motorola Home is part of Google’s strategy to switch the focus of Motorola away from television and into the smartphone market.