Lenovo acquires Motorola from Google for $2.91 billion

Scorpus

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Motorola Mobility hasn't lasted long at Google, with the Android giant agreeing to sell Motorola to Lenovo in a deal worth $2.91 billion. Google with retain the majority of Motorola's patents in the sale, as well as the Advanced Technology and Projects group, while 2,000 patents and a license for the remaining patents will be transferred to Lenovo.

To start with, Lenovo will pay Google $750 million in stock and $660 million in cash, with the remaining $1.5 billion to be paid over the course of three years. Google originally bought Motorola for $12.5 billion in 2012, and in 2013 the company sold the set-top box division to the Arris Group for $2.3 billion, in some respects creating a $7.3 billion loss for Google through today's sale.

Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said in a statement that "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". A leaked email from Google to employees also revealed that the company believes Motorola will be "better served under Lenovo" as "the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all in when it comes to making mobile devices".

Motorola's existing management team will be staying on board as it transitions to Lenovo, and the company will continue to sell some smartphones under the Motorola brand. Lenovo has acquired all Motorola smartphones currently in development, but it's unclear what will happen to current devices such as the Moto X and Moto G.

The sale means that Lenovo is now not only the largest PC manufacturer worldwide, but also the third-largest smartphone maker in the Americas, and the second-largest phone company in China.

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I can't help but think of CB's and two way radios (pre-cellphone era), when I hear the name Motorola. The name has been around nearly as long as IBM.
 
Man, Lenovo has been on a buying spree as of late, wish I had that kind of money. =p
Lenovo is a Chinese company so it has an almost unlimited $ supply.
I applaud how Lenovo handled its IBM acquisition (desktop ?). perhaps, now is the time for blackberry management to sell its phone business before blackberry's value goes down the drain.
 
I guess all the balance of motorola jobs (their shaumburg, illinois campus) will leave for china. Govt. doesn't have to approve it.
 
Wow, so Motorola was like the unwanted child here. Google didn't promote it as what it was "a company owned by them", instead they used LG to manufacture their Nexus. There was no clear advantage or something that differed it from the competition to make it clear it had Google as close as it could possibly be.
 
Well ****...I mean I get that this deals take months to get approved and all that so I'm not worried about Moto X support (and even if it wasn't supported at the most I might loose active notifications but can still run custom roms anyway).

What's sad is that I was actually happy to see Motorola being revitalized and on the forefront again. I'm not specifically down on Lenovo, I just liked the direction they were taking.
 
No! I just bought a Motorola smartphone just because it was owned by Google! I figured that this would mean it would get more OS updates than phones from other companies, but now this is disheartening.
 
For me it's a reminder of a worlds first CPU with 32 bit registers Motorola MC68000 ... that was 35 years ago
 
Google only wanted Motorola for its patents. So much for the "Motorola: a Google Company" splash screen on my Moto G.
 
Why google did that? It basically treat motorola as its unwanted child. According to me google use Motorola only for its patents, that it. And after this google and samsung also sign global patent license agreement.
 
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