Motorola seeing "RED"

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has joined the "RED" campaign to fight AIDS in Africa. Created by U2's Bono, the campaign began in Britain and has moved to the U.S. in time for the December holiday shopping season. Motorola will donate a portion of the proceeds from sales of special RED cell phones to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Motorola joins with American Express, Gap, Nike, and other companies in this hybrid type of corporate philanthropy.

Motorola has partnered with Deutsche Telekom to invest in Ruckus Wireless, Inc., which makes "smart" Wi-Fi routers capable of beaming live TV and radio into and around the home. Ruckus makes the MediaFlex router that plugs into a box set on top the TV, much like a cable TV box. Using Internet Protocol TV, IPTV, the router can beam the signal to a Wi-Fi laptop or desktop computer in that room or even in another room. Motorola is betting the ability to beam the signal throughout a home or office without adding additional wiring will prove popular with consumers. The current Ruckus MediaFlex router retails for $159.

Motorola also rolled out its iRadio deal with National Public Radio (NPR) to provide leading public radio programming to radios in cars and homes, but now also to Motorola mobile phones. Motorola's iRadio offers over 600 channels of commercial-free audio programming.

Not all is going well with Motorola. In September, Motorola agreed to buy barcode scanner maker Symbol Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: SBL) for $15 per share, for a total of nearly $4 billion. Some Symbol Technologies shareholders have filed suit seeking to stop Motorola's acquisition of Symbol. In part, the shareholders think the price per share should be higher than $15. Symbol Technologies management says the suit is without merit. It wants the acquisition to go through.

Interested investors will want to listen to Motorola's Q3 earnings call on Tuesday 17 October, beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET.