Zebra Technologies Corp. began in 1969 as Data Specialties Inc., manufacturing paper-tape punch machines that once were the standard in helping companies track inventory. By the early 1980s, bar codes were in and Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Data Specialists adopted the name Zebra to fit the black-and-white stripes on its product. Today the company is best known for radio-frequency identification printer-encoders, thermal printers and other products that help customers like Amazon Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. organize most anything. In April, the $1.04 billion company agreed to buy Motorola Solutions Inc. for $3.5 billion.
LEGAL TEAM
General counsel Jim Kaput’s legal team will go from seven attorneys to 27 when the Motorola deal is done, and they’ll work in the Americas, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. He supervises a team of five in government relations. His priorities are “rolling out a global, multilanguage code of busines conduct,” and of course, the Motorola Solutions deal, he said. “The [Motorola] business is roughly 2 1/2 times the size of Zebra, and carving out a transaction for a private business unit was complicated in itself.”
