In yet another interesting move, Google has sold Motorola Mobility to multinational Chinese tech company Lenovo.
The Chinese giant has just acquired Google’s Motorola division for a reported $2.91 billion. This is a marked decrease in value for the beleaguered Motorola, which was purchased by Google in 2011 for $12.5 billion. The division has been a constant drain on Google’s bottom line, losing $248 million in the last quarter alone.
Interestingly, Google will retain ownership of the vast majority of Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio, leaving Lenovo with about 2,000 patents and the Motorola Mobility brand and trademarks. Lenovo has been muscling it’s way into PC markets in the last decade by buying IBM’s personal computer division and now seems poised to make a foray into the global smartphone market as well. Of note is the fact that Google will also be retaining control of it’s “Skunkworks” division as part of this deal. The deal is still subject to approval by both U.S. and Chinese authorities but it seems that the global smartphone market may be changing.
Lenovo is also a major Windows 8 partner, so it seems likely that the new acquisition will bring us some (hopefully) not dreadful versions of Windows Phone 8.
