Motorola and Huawei hug and make up

Motorola Solutions and Huawei have dropped unrelated cases between them in a deal lubricated with some Motorola cash.

Huawei has been blocking Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) from acquiring Motorola Solutions on the grounds that such a deal would see its secrets end up with a competitor, while Motorola was suing Huawei for stealing secrets of its own via Lemko. But for a consideration, provided by Motorola, Huawei has dropped its objections and Motorola has removed Huawei from the list of defendants in its case.

Not that Motorola is giving up on the assertion that staff were feeding secrets to nearby value added reseller Lemko while employed by Motorola. That case was filed in 2008 and rumbles on, but Huawei was added as a defendant in July last year when Motorola alleged that confidential emails had been passed its way. Lemko sells Huawei equipment, but Huawei has always maintained that the relationship went no further than that.

No one disputes that Motorola Solutions (the networking infrastructure part of Motorola) has access to Huawei's commercial secrets. Motorola Solutions has been rebadging Huawei kit for years, and needed access to technical details in order to support its customers, but when NSN said it was going to buy Motorola Solutions Huawei balked at the idea of its trade secrets ending up in the possession of a rival.

Money can allay the greatest of fears, and Motorola will pay an undisclosed fee to Huawei to complete the closing of the actions. That should clear the way for NSN to acquire Motorola Solutions, at the agreed $975m, and still be able to support customers who bought rebadged Huawei kit. ®