Google has announced that Chinese manufacturer Lenovo has agreed to acquire Motorola Mobility for $2.91 billion. The deal is expected to close in the coming months depending on the regulatory approvals in US and China.
In terms of the financial specifics, Lenovo will pay $1.41 billion in cash and stocks at the closing of the deal, and the rest 1.5 billion will be paid in a three-year promissory note.
Lenovo is basically getting the Motorola Mobility’s smartphone unit and around 2000 patents along with trademarks and brand. Google will be keeping majority of patents (around 15,000), Project Ara and Advanced Technology Group. Lenovo will also receive a license to the portfolio of Motorola patents, which Google is keeping.
To remind you, Google had originally acquired Motorola Mobility in 2012 after paying over $12 billion but patents were always stated to be the main reason behind the buying of a hardware marker by the search giant. Even at the time of Google’s Motorola acquisition, several analysts predicted that Google will dump Motorola’s smartphone unit down the line and the same has happened earlier today.
“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,” said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo.
One can only guess about future of Motorola Mobility at this point but if Lenovo’s track record is any indication, there is hope.
Then what about moto g? will it be running lenovo’s custom os???
No… that will keep going as usual with vanilla android
But with no Faster upgrades as Nexus. Lenovo will never update phones with new android versions.
That’s what i was afraid of…
Now what about developer support?
Moto did the updates.. Google were in no way a part of this.. So Moto will continue to do so … Updates not an issue..
Also since GE Moto G’s source is already on net, Cm will have your backk.. Expect to see Moto G on the CM installer soon..
Besides the deal still has a lot of paperwork to go throuh before Lenovo can even get their hands on MOTO… So Moto G is still a good buy…
Thanks, good to know that Moto G is stil a good buy
So, do motorola devices get good updates if its handled by motorola?
It should… Besides think practically.. Moto G is a steal so many ppl will have it and hence many rom devs will support it… So given it has above avg specs you are good to go for many years…
Hmmm…thanks for info
The acquisition of Motorola by Google was never about making phones.
It was always about the patents. Unlike Apple and MS, Google doesn’t
want to make hardware. They’re happy being a services company.
So now that they’ve got their hands on their patents, they’re
bundling off the hardware making unit to Lenovo. This will do to
Lenovo’s global ambition exactly what the buying of IBM’s PC making
division did for them almost a decade ago. With slowing PC sales, Lenovo
needed a presence in the global mobile industry beyond China and this
opens the door for them big time. This is their chance to take Samsung
head-on.