Motorola buys British

announced yesterday that it is acquiring key assets from British mobile handset maker

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Motorola is purchasing Sendo’s UK and Singapore-based research and development team plus the design and test equipment required by that team, as well as the company's intellectual property portfolio. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Sendo’s core research and development team comprises approximately 200 engineers, with nearly 170 of those based in Birmingham, UK, and the rest based in Singapore. Motorola will integrate the engineers into its Mobile Devices business.

In addition to the engineers, Motorola is acquiring Sendo’s entire intellectual property portfolio, including 50 existing and 40 pending patents.

"Motorola has had tremendous success in Europe over the last 18 months, particularly because of our commitment to helping customers deliver value-added services,” said Ron Garriques, president of Motorola Mobile Devices. “We're going to keep up the momentum, and this team will be a vital part of that."

During 2004, Sendo sold approximately five million handsets and had more than $420 million in revenue. Yesterday, June 29, the privately held company went into administration.

Under the agreement, Motorola is not acquiring the larger business of Sendo or any of its manufacturing or supply relationships, or any of its capital or real assets, handset inventories, sales offices, liabilities or financial obligations.