REVscene Automotive Forum - Google Sells Motorola to Lenovo

REVscene Automotive Forum (https://www.revscene.net/forums/)

- Mobile Phone & Tablet Chat (https://www.revscene.net/forums/mobile-phone-tablet-chat_52/)

- - Google Sells Motorola to Lenovo (https://www.revscene.net/forums/692385-google-sells-motorola-lenovo.html)

Google Sells Motorola to Lenovo

im not surprise at all..

Quote:

pdate: Google has now confirmed the sale of the Motorola smartphone division to Lenovo, at a price of $2.91 billion USD. Google CEO Larry page took to the official Google Blog to share the news.

"The smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices," said Page. "It’s why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo--which has a rapidly growing smartphone business and is the largest (and fastest-growing) PC manufacturer in the world."

Page also stated the Moto G and Moto X smartphones were "doing really well," and Google had retained "the vast majority of Motorola’s patents."

Original Story: Back in 2011, Google surprised more than a few onlookers by purchasing the mobile division of Motorola. Since then, Motorola has rolled out two new smartphones and started manufacturing for domestic Moto production in the US. But according to a report from Reuters, Google is planning to sell Motorola to China's Lenovo Group.

According to unnamed sources, the $3 billion USD deal could be announced sometime today. Lenovo will reportedly use a combination of cash, company stock, and deferred payments to finance the deal. While it's not immediately clear what Lenovo will receive in the transaction, the sources claim the deal includes both the Moto X and Moto G smartphones, in addition to some patents.

Google purchased Motorola for $12.5 billion USD back in August 2011. At the time, it was assumed Google was interested in Motorola's valuable patent holdings.

Google Sells Motorola to Lenovo in $2.91 Billion Deal - IGN

maybe this is a strong indication that google is exiting out of the hardware business with ending the Nexus line and replacing them Google Play Edition phones next year as those rumours suggest

Report: Google to Stop Selling Nexus Phones in 2015

Could care less about the sale. But ending the Nexus line is rather unfortunate.

Quote:

Every year we're treated to a new Nexus phone running the latest version of stock Android. As expected, 2013 gave us the Nexus 5. However, it also gave us a handful of other popular smartphones running stock Android. Each of these devices carried the 'Google Play Edition' branding alongside the regular manufacturer and model name. These handsets included the HTC One Google Play Edition, the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition, the Moto G Google Play Edition, and the Xperia Z Ultra Google Play Edition.

They better make damn sure that these are available to us. :okay:

That sucks if they get out of the hardware side of it or eliminated the Nexus line. They made the phones so affordable but if I'm stuck with $600+ premium devices, I might go back to iPhone just for build quality and resale value..

There goes the "made in north American" theme.
Posted via RS Mobile

Hopefully they don't end the Nexus line that would suck

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkyMark (Post 8407899)

Hopefully they don't end the Nexus line that would suck

They might. I think with the whole Goggle Editions they were testing waters to see how everyone thinks.

Google Play Edition devices carry approximately the same price tag as the non-Play Edition devices.

That means no more cheap phones from Google. Which means no one will buy hardware from them anymore. Which means they made a bad decision. GG.

It's likely that they subsidize the Nexus phone line (which would explain why telecoms sell it for more, and just by going on the pricing of similarly-specced phones), so it's understandable that they would want to exit the hardware business (if the rumours were in fact true in both cases).

I dont think they will be out of the hardware line.. it would be ashame if it was... looking forward to the next nexus 10...

This makes my Moto X sad.

Google never bought Motorola so they could make phones - it was strictly to stop Motorola from declaring an all-out patent war on Android OEM's. Motorola had already stated on more than one occasion that Android vendors were using their patented technology and they were going to seek compensation from them.

Meanwhile, Apple and Microsoft were already involved in lawsuits against several Android OEM's. Microsoft has since settled with 20-21 (can't remember latest figure) Android OEM's who now pay MS a royalty on every Android device sold. So Android is no longer "free" for OEM's as they're paying MS a royalty per device.

Now if Motorola starts demanding a royalty for every Android device sold, then the cost to use Android goes up even further. At this point OEM's have to start wondering should they be paying $25 (for example, nobody really knows what MS is charging and what Motorola would charge) for each device or look at alternatives (like Windows Phone).

At a time when Android was just starting to take off, the last thing Google needed was in-fighting among Android OEM's (namely Motorola and everyone else). It's fine for Google to complain about Big Bad MS or Evil Apple coming in as outsiders ganging up on Android. To have an actual Android OEM (and one with a deep history in cellular innovation) to start suing OEM's would have been a disaster.

So now Google has sold off every part of Motorola EXCEPT the patents, which they keep.

So clearly all Google wanted was the patents.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dangonay (Post 8408343)

Exactly my thoughts.

Google was never in the Motorola deal to become a hardware manufacturer. If they were, they wouldn't have had LG for the previous Nexus releases (Nexus 4 and 5). I am pretty sure the Nexus line will still be around.