Motorola Opens First US-Assembled Smartphone Plant

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry and top executives are attending the opening of a Fort Worth plant where cellphone pioneer Motorola will produce the first smartphone ever assembled in the U.S.

Motorola is owned by Google, whose Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, will be on-hand Tuesday, as will Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside.

Motorola will produce its new flagship device, Moto X, there, creating 2,000 jobs.

The factory will be run by Flextronics International Ltd., a Singapore-based contract electronics manufacturer that has had a long relationship with Motorola.

Also attending will be Flextronics CEO Mike McNamara.

The Fort Worth location was once occupied by a Nokia plant, making repurposing it easy.

Perry administers two incentive funds meant to attract job-creating businesses to Texas. But Motorola didn't get money from those funds for this deal.

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