Motorola USA has announced its intention to launch a tender offer to acquire a controlling interest in Vertex Standard Co, Ltd. Vertex Standard is the parent company of Yaesu. Motorola will own 80 percent of Vertex Standard; Tokogiken, a privately held Japanese company, controlled by current president and CEO of Vertex Standard Jun Hasegawa, will retain 20 percent, forming a joint venture. The total purchase price for 80 percent of the outstanding shares on a fully diluted basis will be approximately US $108 million.
Hams care because Yaesu is one of the leading brand names within amateur radio. My tri-band HT is a Yaesu VX-5.
Auxis and other marine interests may care since another Vertex brank is Standard Horizon - maker of marine radios.
I wonder if the price will tripple, and programming link will cost more than the radio, and the programming software will carry a ***'s black choppers to visite you. classified tag and releasing it will cause M
The big reason that Auxiliarists should be concerned, however, is that we are moving toward the same kind of over professionalism that has overtaken the Civil Air Patrol, and Vertex is the only manufacturer who builds NTIA compliant radios in the frequency bands that we are assigned outside the Marine bands. At least the only ones that are in the price range of normal folks.
