Silvus Technologies Holdings Inc., a Westwood-based military technology company, announced on Wednesday its $4.4 billion acquisition by Motorola Solutions Inc. had closed.
Under the purchase agreement terms, the acquisition of Silvus Technologies includes $4.4 billion in upfront consideration, of which $4.38 billion is comprised of cash and $20 million worth of restricted stock which is dedicated to certain employee equity holders.
Founded in 2004, Silvus Technologies is best known for its mobile ad hoc network applications used in the military to triage information between ships, soldiers, planes and vehicles. The company has customers in autonomous product manufacturing, intelligence and law enforcement, and the military sector. These mobile ad hoc network systems, known as MANET by the wartime industry, need to be flexible and able to work without an existing fixed infrastructure that can be targeted, and they are becoming exponentially relevant as autonomous systems like robots and drones become an increasingly adopted tool in the military.
“Silvus’ advanced solutions for drone and unmanned systems are trusted in the world’s most demanding defense environments and offer vital applications for border security and public safety,” said Greg Brown, chairman and chief executive at Motorola Solutions, in a statement. “Their capabilities are an excellent complement to our land mobile radio and video technologies, and we look forward to bringing them to more customers around the world.”
‘Opportunities for some scale’
Motorola Solutions, a Chicago-based technology company, provides security and surveillance products that run the gamut from video security, command center technology and critical communications. The company has worked with national and foreign military agents like the German Ministry of Defense and the Israeli Defense Forces.
“We think there’s opportunities for some scale to add additional scale to those programs,” Jack Molloy, the executive vice president and chief operating officer at Motorola Solutions said during the company’s first quarter earnings call in 2025. “The other thing that hasn’t been talked about a lot is around border security leveraging video, particularly our thermal assets by way of our silent sentinel acquisition.”
The acquisition is part of a growing wave of interest in military and wartime technology, much of which is being developed in the Los Angeles area. More than 10% of the world’s military technology innovation happens in California, according to PitchBook, the majority of which is in L.A.
Neros Inc., a drone manufacturing startup in El Segundo, raised $35 million in series A funding in March. CX2, a military technology startup in El Segundo, raised $31 million in series A funding in late May. Castelion, another El Segundo-based weapons manufacturing startup, collected $100 million in late January.
