Zebra Technologies to keep 800 workers in Holtsville

Zebra Technologies Corp. plans to maintain current staffing levels at the 800-employee Holtsville office it is acquiring from Motorola Solutions Inc., an executive said.

"We're not looking to change the staffing profile," said Michael Terzich, Zebra senior vice president for global sales and marketing. "We're investing in putting more people in the office. Our expectation is we'll continue to leverage Holtsville as a design center."

Last spring, Zebra announced it would acquire Motorola Solutions' enterprise business, including the Long Island operation, for $3.45 billion. Terzich said federal regulators have approved the deal, which is expected to close by year's end.

In an interview Wednesday, Terzich said Zebra plans to maintain Holtsville's role in creating rugged mobile computers. The company also plans to invest about $500,000 in the Holtsville location to build a showroom to display its products for customers in the New York area.

Thursday, Zebra's website listed six job openings for Long Island, including three that a company spokeswoman said are newly created positions.

Zebra is adding more than $3 billion in debt to its balance sheet to finance the acquisition, which is designed to bolster the company's "Internet of things" strategy. In the Internet of things, smart devices communicate with people and among themselves: refrigerators might order a milk delivery and assembly lines could replenish raw materials.

Zebra and Motorola Solutions provide bar code and radio frequency identification systems that let FedEx, United Parcel Service and other Fortune 500 customers track objects.

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As sensors are added to devices in health care, manufacturing and other industries, Zebra hopes to profit as business customers harvest the data.

In December 2013, Zebra acquired Hauppauge-based Hart Systems. The roughly 20 employees in that office also could be relocated to Holtsville, which would be Zebra's largest location aside from its Lincolnshire, Illinois, headquarters, Terzich said.

Hart was acquired from Roslyn Heights private equity firm Topspin Partners for $94 million.

On Tuesday, Zebra priced $1.05 billion in a bond offering. Those funds, along with a $2.2 billion secured loan and cash on hand, will be used to finance the Motorola Solutions deal.

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The Holtsville building, off the Long Island Expressway, was the home of bar code pioneer Symbol Technologies, acquired by Motorola Inc. for $3.9 billion in 2007. Motorola Solutions was formed four years later when Motorola Inc. separated its bar code and public safety radio business from its mobile phone and TV set-top unit, which became Motorola Mobility.