Motorola, Inc. - ex 'Galvin Manufacturing Corporation', 847 West Harrison Street, Chicago, Illinois. Many exports, for instance radios to Switzerland.

1947: 'Galvin Manufacturing Corporation' became 'Motorola, Inc.'
Actual headquarter: 1303 East Algonquin Road, Schaumburg, Illinois 60196 USA.

Paul V. Galvin and Edward Stewart, both from Illinois, founded a storage battery company in 1921. For failure to pay exsise taxes, the government shut the business down in 1923. Stewart opened a new storage battery firm, called "Stewart Storage Battery Co.", in 1926.

An other version: Founded in Chicago in the year of 1928 by Paul V. Galvin and his brother Joseph as the "Galvin Manufacturing Corporation" and become a company recognized for its dedication to ethical business practices and pioneering role in important innovations. Is first product, the "battery eliminator", allowed radios to operate from household current instead of batteries. But the company went bankrupt and Galvin and his brother acquired the battery eliminator operations and incorporated them as "Galvin Manufacturing Corp.".

"Galvin began working on a new car radio receiver in 1929. The following year, the firm introduced the world's first commercially viable car radio. The product was named Motorola, a combination of the words of "motor" and "victrola." Motorola continued to lead the U.S. automobile radio industry into the 1930s."

In the 1930s, the company commercialized car radios under the brand Motorola, suggesting of "sound in motion." In 1937, it introduced a line of home radios and its first two-way radio products. In 1947, its brand name became so popular that the company changed its name to match: Motorola! In 1953, Motorola's first semiconductor plant was operating, and in the 1960s, the company was a leader in semiconductors, communications and consumer electronics. The Motorola company has more than 40,000 items in its product line used in a myriad of Radio, communications, automotive, industrial and consumer applications and are active until today.

Not even the official history "A Timeline Overview of Motorola History 1928-2008 reveils when it's first transistor radio, the model 56T1 was made. Many believe it was made in 1955 but facts show that it must have come to the market in 1956 - see for instance SAMS Photofact - which is listed in December 1956, not before. In the annual report 1955 one can read about commercial and military products plus partly auto radios - and there is even a picture of Motorola's first transistor radio, the 56T1 - but it is then only a design, not a radio on the market. Otherwise it would have a name and surely some lines about it.
 

Quasar is a North American brand of electronics, first used by Motorola in 1967 for a model line of transistorized color televisions, which were well-known for containing all serviceable parts in a drawer beneath the television's cabinet. Soon, it was established as its own brand, with all Motorola-manufactured televisions being sold as "Quasar by Motorola"." It continues that the radio-manufacturing and television division was sold (divested itself) to Matsushita in 1974. In other words this is only meant for Quasar (not for Motorola).

Motorola bought General Instruments by a stock swap on September 15, 1999.
Besides Quasar, Motorola had different Spin-offs like "Iridium", the first global communication network, using a set of 66 satellites, "General Dynamics" (Government and defense, 2001), "Freescale Semiconductor, Inc." (2003), in July 2006 the sale of its automotive business to "Continental AG" was completed and in 2009 a split between "Motorola Mobil Devices" and "Motorola Broadband & Mobility Solutions" should be completed to save the company which lost a lot of money in different undertakings like Iridium or mobile phones.