Google Sells Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 Billion

Alex Co

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Dec 11, 2013
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Google Sells Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 Billion


Lenovo finally has a major presence in the US market, as it
acquires Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion.


Google is selling Motorola Mobility to Chinese company Lenovo for an astounding $2.91 billion, with the payment terms being divvied up into a mixture of cash and stock. Google is set to receive $650 million cash and $750 million in stock, while the remaining sum of $1.5 billion will be paid by Lenovo over the span of three years. Although Lenovo will obtain 2,000 patents and Motorola's portfolio of devices which include the Moto X, Moto G, and the Droid Ultra series, Google will retain ownership of the vast majority of patents it originally received when it bought Motorola back in 2011.

Here's Lenovo's official press release on the sale:

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today have entered into a definitive agreement under which Lenovo plans to acquire the Motorola Mobility smartphone business. With a strong PC business and a fast-growing smartphone business, this agreement will significantly strengthen Lenovo's position in the smartphone market. In addition, Lenovo will gain a strong market presence in North America and Latin America, as well as a foothold in Western Europe, to complement its strong, fast-growing smartphone business in emerging markets around the world.

The acquisition by Lenovo instantly gives the PC and smartphone maker a major presence in the US market, where it has struggled compared to its smartphone success in Asian countries. Google, meanwhile, will finally be able to unload Motorola which has been draining profits since its buyout a few years ago.

Will this finally give Lenovo a foothold in the US? For spending close to $3 billion, I sure hope.

Source: Gizmodo [http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57618023-93/google-sells-motorola-unit-to-lenovo-for-$2.9b/]

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Strazdas

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May 28, 2011
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i wonder how much are those parents worth to google. seems like a hell of a lot. google bought motorola for 12.5 billion and is now selling for 2.91 billion, so it means that the remaining patents are worth a whooping 9.59 billion or google is making a loss on this.

damn google is getting more scary when you start connecting the dots.
 

mixadj

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Oct 23, 2010
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Of course they sell Motorola to the company I deliberately stay away from right when my Moto X is supposed to arrive in the mail..... Oh well, I just hope Lenovo doesen't junk up the UI (Lookin at you Samsung) and keeps Android close to stock on their new platforms.
 

O maestre

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Nov 19, 2008
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I'm a bit surprised by this I thought they would use Motorola's hardware capabilities to avoid OEM for their nexus line. Keeping patents is a smart thing to do, as it will undoubtedly be used in litigation warfare especially since Motorola was one a great innovator in the mobile field, too bad their marketing sucked.
 

antidonkey

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Dec 10, 2009
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Sigh.....There goes my primary reason for wanting Motorola smart phones. While I didn't really have any plans to get a new phone when my contract is up in a few months I might consider it now. However, nothing of the current crop of phones excites me with the exception of the HTC One but I'm wary of HTC.
 

Atmos Duality

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Mar 3, 2010
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R.I.P. Motorola.
Well, technically that occurred a little over two years ago, but this was more pulling the plug on lifesupport than anything.
 

jayzz911

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Nov 9, 2010
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bought a moto G 16gb two weeks ago. Aaaaaand then google sells motorola to lenovo. Come on man what the hell!
 

PoolCleaningRobot

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Mar 18, 2012
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As an Android fanatic, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I owned a Razor flip phone and it was complete garbage so I swore off Motorola but then Google bought them and made the Moto X with all its customizations and now they've shown interest in completely modular phones. Not to mention the X's they were manufactured in America and not Chinese slave labor and still sold at a decent price. I have every reason to be concerned but at the same time, Lenovo isn't a terrible company. They make unique, sometimes niche products and have reasonable prices so they're very competitive. I guess this depends on Lenovo's plans and how shaken up Motorola will be

antidonkey said:
Sigh.....There goes my primary reason for wanting Motorola smart phones. While I didn't really have any plans to get a new phone when my contract is up in a few months I might consider it now. However, nothing of the current crop of phones excites me with the exception of the HTC One but I'm wary of HTC.
Same. I was planning on getting whatever the next version of the Moto X was but I guess I'll have to wait and see how Lenovo supports their phones. But I gotta ask, what makes you weary of HTC? (sent from my HTC One)
 

antidonkey

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PoolCleaningRobot said:
antidonkey said:
Sigh.....There goes my primary reason for wanting Motorola smart phones. While I didn't really have any plans to get a new phone when my contract is up in a few months I might consider it now. However, nothing of the current crop of phones excites me with the exception of the HTC One but I'm wary of HTC.
Same. I was planning on getting whatever the next version of the Moto X was but I guess I'll have to wait and see how Lenovo supports their phones. But I gotta ask, what makes you weary of HTC? (sent from my HTC One)
I know a couple of people that have had HTC phones in the past and wound up not liking them very much. They eventually had lock up and battery issues. However, the guy installing a new security system at my job has a HTC One and he really likes it plus I've been hearing all sorts of good things from review sites. Maybe I'll investigate since my Razer Maxx's screen likes to freak the hell out when it's too cold. It's a simple fix....just hold my hand on the screen for 10 seconds....but it's highly annoying when I can't see the button to turn the alarm off in the morning.
 

PoolCleaningRobot

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Mar 18, 2012
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antidonkey said:
I know a couple of people that have had HTC phones in the past and wound up not liking them very much. They eventually had lock up and battery issues. However, the guy installing a new security system at my job has a HTC One and he really likes it plus I've been hearing all sorts of good things from review sites. Maybe I'll investigate since my Razer Maxx's screen likes to freak the hell out when it's too cold. It's a simple fix....just hold my hand on the screen for 10 seconds....but it's highly annoying when I can't see the button to turn the alarm off in the morning.
I liked the HTC sensation I had before (the aftermarket battery I slapped in it give it great battery life) so I decided to stick with them. The One is great but I ended up needing an sd card slot a lot more than I thought I would, but I'm a data hoarder and I only had the 32 gig to chose from