Google had closed a deal with Chinese manufacturer, Lenovo, to purchase Motorola Mobility for US$2.91 billion. This will mark the end of Google’s foray into the manufacturing side, after originally purchasing Motorola back in 2011 for $12.5 billion.
Of course since Google originally purchased Motorola Mobility, it has slowly broken the company up, scaled back its device offerings to consumers and added its massive pile of patents to its legal arsenal. However the company has continued to lose money for Google for several years since its purchase which was its largest-ever acquisition, and it appears that the Mountain view company has decided enough is enough, deciding to sell the company to Chinese manufacturer Lenovo, one of the most successful PC manufacturers in the world.
The Lenovo deal, which is worth US$2.91 billion, includes the Motorola brand and Motorola Mobility’s portfolio of smartphone devices such as the Moto X and Moto G as well as the the DROID™ Ultra series. Google will maintain after the deal is closed, ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, including current patent applications and invention disclosures.
Google have stated in its press release that ‘as part of its ongoing relationship with Google, Lenovo will receive a license to this rich portfolio of patents and other intellectual property’. Additionally Lenovo will receive with the deal, over 2,000 patent assets, as well as the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark portfolio.
Lenovo have been looking to enter the US market, after having such a hit with devices within the Asia-pacific region and its home Country China, but the US has been seen for quite sometime as the next big market for the company. Mr Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo has stated:
“The acquisition of such an iconic brand, innovative product portfolio and incredibly talented global team will immediately make Lenovo a strong global competitor in smartphones. We will immediately have the opportunity to become a strong global player in the fast-growing mobile space. We are confident that we can bring together the best of both companies to deliver products customers will love and a strong, growing business. Lenovo has a proven track record of successfully embracing and strengthening great brands – as we did with IBM’s Think brand – and smoothly and efficiently integrating companies around-the-world. I am confident we will be successful with this process, and that our companies will not only maintain our current momentum in the market, but also build a strong foundation for the future.
Larry Page, CEO of Google stated that to investors via the press release that:
“Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola Mobility into a major player within the Android ecosystem. This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere”
Ex-Googler and current Motorola Mobility CEO, Dennis Woodside, stated via the press release that:
“As part of Lenovo, Motorola Mobility will have a rapid path to achieving our goal of reaching the next 100 million people with the mobile Internet. With the recent launches of Moto X and Moto G, we have tremendous momentum right now and Lenovo’s hardware expertise and global reach will only help to accelerate this”
It is uncertain if Dennis Woodside will continue on as CEO of Motorola Mobility post acquisition and it does raise questions as to how the sale of Motorola to a Chinese firm will affect the company’s recent efforts to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US? We’ll have wait to see what happens once the acquisition is complete.
What do you think of Lenovo buying Motorola Mobility from Google? Do you think Motorola Mobility is a good fit for Lenovo? Do you think Google is making the right move?
might even improve the horrid availability of recent Moto phones. There is a world outside of North America
Horrible acquisition by Google in the first place. Can’t imagine shareholders would be happy with $9 billion written off the company’s value. The patents are worthless (Google used them to try and fleece $4 billion a month from Microsoft but only ended up getting 1.8 million a month). When their attack on Microsoft failed, then Google went all ‘oh we’ll just use our patent portfolio defensively, as they knew the patents were of no use. Motorola didn’t turn its fortunes around. Even after laying off 30% of the staff, re-branding it as a ‘Google company’, making a new product with… Read more »
When it comes down to it Google got what they wanted they saw an old delapidated house (Motorola Mobility) that was sitting on a block of land that could potentially be sitting on a gold mine (Motorolas mobile technology patents) they bought the land, kept all the gold then sold off the house they no longer needed and claimed a loss… for them its a pretty win win situation even with a $9 billion write off
Thus ends the most epic fail chapters in Google’s history.
The Moto X was hyped up to be the Apple killler but it turned out to be just mehhhh
Hmmm. I don’t know what to think of this to be honest. :/
Well it’s not like Moto has sold many phones in Australia anyway.
It’s a “theoretical” outrage to people in this corner of the planet.