Motorola

(NYSE: MOT) is a publicly traded international communications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, USA, a suburb of Chicago. The company began as the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928 by brothers Paul V. Galvin and Joseph E. Galvin. In 1930, Paul V. Galvin creates the brand name "Motorola" for the company's new car radio, linking "motor" (motorcar, motion) with the suffix "ola" (sound). In 1947, Galvin Manufacturing Corporation changed its name to Motorola, Inc. The foundation for Motorola was laid when Illinois residents Paul V. Galvin and Edward Stewart founded a storage battery company in 1921. Although the U.S. government shut the new business down in 1923 for failure to pay excise taxes, operations continued when Stewart opened a new storage battery firm, named Stewart Storage Battery Co., in 1926. When the growing popularity of electric power undercut battery sales, Steward devised the "battery eliminator," a converter that allowed a battery-operated radio to plug into a wall outlet. The new product wasn't enough to keep the firm from insolvency; however, Galvin and his brother acquired the battery eliminator operations from the bankrupt firm, and they later incorporated the business as Galvin Manufacturing Corp.