In September 2005, a nonequity strategic alliance was announced that involved three companies—Motorola (MOT), Apple (APPL), and Cingular. The purpose of this alliance was to sell (Cingular’s role) a unique mobile phone (made by Motorola) that is capable of receiving downloads from Apple’s iTunes Web site. The mobile phone in question is called the ROKR. A fascinating aspect of this alliance is that Cingular itself is the product of a joint venture between SBC Communications (SBC) and BellSouth (BLS). To complete this exercise, you will be asked to carefully examine this alliance to determine the purposes it serves for each firm.

In this part of the exercise, each team will present its assessment of the purposes supporting or driving each firm’s decision to participate in the strategic alliance. After all of the teams have presented their assessments, discuss the differences among the groups’
inputs and what may have caused those differences. Be prepared to decide if your group would change its assessments in light of hearing peers discuss their perspectives. Last, as a class, obtain current information about the status of this alliance. Is the alliance reaching its anticipated success? Does each firm seem to be making progress toward reaching the purposes it sought when deciding to participate in the alliance? In the class’s view, given the current status of this alliance, what is likely to happen with this alliance in the future and why?