Google Is Selling Its Mobility Unit to Lenovo for About $3 Billion

[jsr]

Source: New York Times

Google is selling its Motorola Mobility smartphone unit to Lenovo for about $2.91 billion, the companies announced on Wednesday.

Google’s Mobility unit includes handset technology that the search giant acquired when it bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in 2011.

That acquisition was Google’s largest by far, and the biggest bet that Larry Page, its co-founder, has made since returning as chief executive in 2011. Google wanted Motorola’s patents and a cellphone maker to help its mobile business, and named Dennis Woodside, a former Google operations executive, as C.E.O.

Selling a major portion of the business would be a concession of defeat for Google and particularly for Mr. Page. Motorola has continued to bleed money, aggravating shareholders and stock analysts, and its new flagship phone, the Moto X, did not sell as well as expected.

Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/google-seen-selling-it-mobility-unit-to-lenovo-for-about-3-billion/

[onehandle]

1. Google transferring more American resources to China.

Figures.

[Xithras]

3. It's that or extinction.

Motorola made its bed long before Google bought them, when they failed to recognize and adapt to the smartphone revolution. Like Nokia, by the time they realized they were screwing themselves, it was too late to do anything about it.

Google bought Motorola for the patents, nothing more. The phone division is a losing proposition that would have gone bankrupt on its own anyway.

Lenovo makes smartphones already, but its brand isn't widely known outside of tech circles. I'd assume that they're buying Motorola for the name alone.

[bobclark86]

4. You know all these phones...

are made side-by-side in the same factories, right? And they ain't 'murican, either.

[onehandle]

5. Motorola is an American identity from the golden age of communications.

Google could have CLEARLY afforded to keep that part of our history American.

They chose to sell our history.

FUCK GOOGLE.

[LiberalArkie]

6. The original Motorola is still alive, Google just had the cell phone end of it

[onehandle]

7. The mobility end is the historical end. They powered Neil Armstrong's messages from the Moon.

The tiny bit left is basically a consulting skeleton existing to excuse Google's Un-American actions.

[sir pball]

9. No, your precious American company is Motorola Solutions.

Hardly a "consulting skeleton"; they're a $13 billion company that "develops analog and digital two-way radio, voice and data communications products and systems, Wireless LAN Securities, and mobile computing, among others."

Not to mention that Mobility was spun-off from Motorola, rebranded as Motorola Solutions after the split but the legal continuation of Motorola, Inc. Mobility was a brand-new company. And Google didn't express interest until several months after the split. Of course, you're so deeply deluded by the Apple Reality Distortion Field you'd outright deny all of this and probably claim that Google engineered the split or something.

If anybody would care to repost this, parent has me on ignore. But that post is so ignorant, uninformed, sycophantic and downright factually incorrect I had to reply.

[TM99]

11. That is factually incorrect.

The historical end is still the original Motorola now called Motorola Solutions.

From another poster you have on Ignore:

Hardly a "consulting skeleton"; they're a $13 billion company that "develops analog and digital two-way radio, voice and data communications products and systems, Wireless LAN Securities, and mobile computing, among others."

Not to mention that Mobility was spun-off from Motorola, rebranded as Motorola Solutions after the split but the legal continuation of Motorola, Inc. Mobility was a brand-new company. And Google didn't express interest until several months after the split. Of course, you're so deeply deluded by the Apple Reality Distortion Field you'd outright deny all of this and probably claim that Google engineered the split or something.

[TM99]

8. Typical revisionism from a fan-boy.

Motorola had already closed most if not all of their American fabrication facilities long before Google purchased ONLY their mobile division. What wasn't closed was already shipped off to China like the rest of American manufacturing.

[sir pball]

10. Motorola Solutions is actually doing just fine.

They had to amputate the cellphone division because it was dragging the whole company under; the "real" (gov/military/emergency services) telecom stuff is doing quite well. Not a juggernaut, but $9B in revenue isn't exactly suffering. Feel free to repost where the fanboy can see it, I'm on ignore for admitting I own a Samsung - honest truth.

[TM99]

12. Done.

I am sure I will be on Ignore shortly myself though I use products from so many different tech companies I don't have time to focus on one as a 'fan-boy'!

[sir pball]

13. Thanks! On a tangent, I actually used to be even worse..

Back in my younger days, in the late 90s, I put that one to shame. Member of the EvangeList and MacMarines, spent hours every day flamewarring on comp.os.mac.advocacy, Apple stickers on my car, bike, skis, bag, dorm room door, everywhere, the Mac lab assistant, subscribed to everything from Macworld to MacAddict, relentlessly chatted up everybody I even saw owned a Mac whether I knew them or not...it was quite silly, TBH. At least back then we really were a rebellious fringe.

I'd have thought our friend would have been somewhat pleased at least, GOOG spent $12.5b on Mobility and is only getting 3b back. That's far more of a hurting than any patent suits would ever bring (and seeing how G is holding onto the patents, just selling the hardware, I don't think they'll be in court anytime soon).

[TM99]

14. I can't say I was ever that intense!

I got my first Apple II in 8th grade. I bought my first Mac - an LCII in the early 90's during grad school. I continued to buy and use Macs for most of that decade at the same time using other systems including Sun Sparc, DEC Alpha, Windows, and Red Hat Linux starting before version 1.

I actually did some courses on OS X including the Aqua Human Interface, Cocoa & porting Carbon apps from OS 9 to OS X. I got sick of Apple once Jobs got obsessed with iTunes, iPods, iPhones, and all the other iDevices. I still run a small project studio with a few G4's running OS 9 and a G5 running OS X 10.5.8. I built a Hackintosh and rather enjoyed Snow Leopard. I haven't enjoyed the tablification of OS's so I haven't upgraded beyond Windows 7 nor beyond Snow Leopard. I admit to like Google and Android quite a bit. I have jailbroken my iPod Touch but I find myself using my Zenithink custom rom'ed Android tablet far more often.

I wouldn't really view the sale as a big hit. They are still holding on to the patents which will provide a revenue stream in the future as well as defense in the 'patent wars'. They were not going to use the hardware portion but hopefully Lenovo will. I have 4 IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads, and they are solid workhorses!

[sir pball]

15. I started with an SE in 87

Well, discounting the PCjr we had before, that's not much to speak of...got the SE shortly after they were introduced (my mom had one at work and loved it so much we got one instantly), upgraded it to SE/30 in 91, finally went color with a Performa 637 in 1994 and what a piece of crap THAT was, upgraded to a 6400 in 97 for college which I ended up dual-booting into LinuxPPC after cutting my teeth on IRIX in the Graphics Lab, then picked up a G4 MDD in 2003 which soldiered on until I got this MBP in 2011. IMO the Classic UI is still the best in the history of computing, but OS X is still much better than anything else I've ever used.

Otherwise, I have a 160GB iPod Classic since there's no solid-state players that can hold my 140GB library. Galaxy S3 that's been rooted, unlocked, and flashed with AOKP KitKat - rock solid and lightning-fast, even iDroids are impressed when they handle it. Chromecast for streaming TV and a B&N Nook HD+ tablet...like you, I'm not beholden to any particular brand, I just use what works best for me.

[Xithras]

16. The rights to the GE and RCA electronic brands are now French (Thompson)

Zenith electronics belongs to the Koreans (LG). Philco electronics belongs to the Dutch (Philips). The rights to make electronics under the Sylvania and Magnavox names belong to the Japanese (Funai).

If your argument is really that Google is somehow undermining American history by selling a subsidiaries electronics wing to an overseas owner, then you're about 30 years too late. This has been a standard American business practice for decades.

[sir pball]

17. I know I've said this repeatedly already but this isn't even the "real" Motorola.

Mobility was a spin-off, the original company remains in its original headquarters under a slightly different name, still manufacturing the excellent two-way radios and comms gear they built their reputation on. The company being sold made some pretty crappy gear (I had a Droid X2, oh the loathing for that POS) and is meeting a well-deserved fate. Lenovo makes good hardware, perhaps they can turn things around. Google only wanted the IP anyway..

[madrchsod]

2. i have a new moto x and it`s a great phone.

could it be that the market for new plans is slowing?

[quadrature]

18. cellphones... a $10 commodity item

non-Apple cellphones are worth peanuts.

this company is worth next to nothing