Google has
confirmed it is selling Motorola off to Chinese firm Lenovo for $2.91 billion
US, only a year and a half after acquiring the troubled phone maker for $12.5
billion.
Google CEO
Larry Page says Motorola will be “better served by Lenovo” in the competitive
smartphone market while Google continues to focus on the Android software that
runs a majority of the world’s smart devices.“Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola into a major player within the Android ecosystem,” Page wrote “They have a lot of experience in hardware, and they have global reach.”
Google will
retain the majority of Motorola’s valuable patent portfolio, which was a major
reason for the acquisition in 2012. The tech industry has been roiled in recent
years by patent lawsuits from major companies as well as so-called patent
trolls who make spurious patent claims against companies in order to extort
royalties. Google’s purchase of Motorola was widely seen as a defensive
manoeuvre against rival Apple.
In addition
to the big write-off Google is accepting in its sale to Lenovo, Motorola also
lost nearly $2 billion since the takeover, potentially making it the costliest
Google failure to date.
While
Google is reversing courses, Lenovo is gearing up for a major expansion.
Already the world’s largest maker of personal computers, Lenovo now appears
determined to become a bigger player in smartphones as more people rely on them
instead of laptop and desktop computers to go online.
The sale
still needs to be approved by U.S. and Chinese regulators.
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