Google sells Motorola smartphone business to Lenovo for $2.91 billion

In a surprise move, Google has today announced that it is selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for around $2.91 billion in cash and stock. Lenovo is expected to enter the US market with Motorola name. But Google has not completely sold Motorola to Lenovo. It still owns majority of Motorola’s patents, and 2,000 patents and a license has been sold to Lenovo. Lenovo is going to pay Google around $660 million in cash and $750 million in stock.Google has already confirmed the deal.

In a statement, Google’s CEO Larry Page said that:

“Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola Mobility into a major player within the Android ecosystem.” “This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere.”

In 2012, when Google purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, the company revealed that it was mainly interested in Motorola’s patent portfolio instead of the headset business. And today Google is selling the Motorola’s handset business to Lenovo.

Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said that:

“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.”