It is absolutely true that Motorola bought Vertex-Standard. Speaking as the employee of a Vertex dealer, I am absolutely sure of this as it directly affected my business.
The business model behind this is very rational: Motorola is focused on digital and public safety radios while Vertex-Standard covers conventional markets and Yaesu covers the ham markets.
As for quality, well, Motorola has made some blunders when trying to compete in the low end of the market. The XTN series is an abomination. I always recommend that any customer who has those
should consider buying some real radios.
Motorola simply has to cut too many corners in order to be able to compete in the lowes price tiers.
Their lowest GOOD radios still cost more than the competition. Motorola is only in its own element
at the top end of the market, where they dominate, and I say, rightfully so. Their top tier products
TODAY are without equal and I say that from the perspective of a full time technician.
As for Vertex...frankly I don't think they live up to their reputation. They've put out some of the
WORST performing portable radios I have EVER seen. They've put out some good ones, too, but
they've unquestionably made some pure garbage on occasion. I do not recommend Vertex,
and would instead not hesitate to recommend Icom first for MOST of my customers. I work for
a dealership for Vertex-Standard, Kenwood, Icom, Motorola, and RELM, and of those, Icom definitely
offers the best combination of price, performance, ease of use, and reliability of any of them.
Elroy