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back to article Hello Moto: Lenovo grabs Motorola biz for $3bn. But Google's KEEPING the patents

Lenovo has signed a deal to buy the loss-making Motorola Mobility smartphone manufacturer for $2.91bn, but a switched-on Google is keeping the patents owned by the firm it gobbled two years ago for $12.5bn. "The acquisition of such an iconic brand, innovative product portfolio and incredibly talented global team will …

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: My money's on Lenovo.

      Seems a fairly shrewd move for Google. Get the patents, don't upset the OEMs too much absorb the losses against your tax and sell the bit you don't want to Lenovo to increase competition / shift more handsets. Google was never really interested in making handsets they just want people to run Android.

      I'm guessing Samsung are none too happy as Lenovo are certainly more competition than Google (owning Motorola) would have been.

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      1. Al_21
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        Re: My money's on Lenovo.

        "I'm guessing Samsung are none too happy as Lenovo are certainly more competition than Google (owning Motorola) would have been."

        I'm thinking Google were peeving Samsung (and other Android manufacturers) off by owning a competitor - the better Motorola does, the more Samsung is going to dislike Google - now Motorola's performance is out of the way.

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  2. xperroni
    Facepalm

    Larry Page is excited

    "Both the Moto G and the Moto X are doing really well, and I’m very excited about the smartphone lineup for 2014." [^]

    Don't you all just love when business people and PR mouthpieces use words like "excited" in the middle of announcing a write-off?

    "Why, I'm so excited we could ditch this dead weight for a third of the price we paid for it, I can barely hold on to my pants!"

    If one morning I woke up and realized I took a decision that flopped to the tune of $6 billion, I guess I'd be many things, but excited wouldn't be one of them.

    Must be nice to be obscenely rich...

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Response to outside pressures, I guess

    Consider the following:

    Samsung working on Tizen - possible loss of Samsung Android business in long term.

    BlackBerry go to Foxconn for manufacturing - reduce their device cost

    Google rapidly do deal with Samsung which may mean they will abandon Tizen, and flog the phone arm to another Chinese manufacturer so they are not competing with Samsung, LG etc., while also being able to undercut both WP8 and BB on device costs at the low end of the market. If we think of the Moto G as a proof of concept that they hawked around potential buyers, it might make sense. Motorola might lose money on them, but only until the new buyer took over manufacturing and started to make a profit.

    They have had several billion back from the Motorola deal by selling set top boxes, taking the cash in the bank, and obtaining tax credits. In the end I suspect they paid only $3-4 billion for the patents, net.

    So to me it looks like this deal is nothing to do with technology and everything to do with adjusting to the realities of the global phone business. It suggests that Google's commercial arm is the driver.

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  4. Mr Spigot

    I thought Moto-G was the start of something good

    Real shame, I've owned a few Moto smartphones and they're decent quality, but historically let down by their appalling approach to updates and the motoblur UI. It looked like Google were transforming them into plain GUI, current OS, affordable handsets.

    I can't say I've ever looked twice at Lenovo gear...

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