Lenovo To Acquire Motorola’s Handset Business

In a surprising turn of events, Google has now confirmed that it is selling Motorola’s cell phone business to Chinese PC maker Lenovo for a reported US$2.91 Billion. The deal would involve Lenovo paying the said amount in the form of cash or a promissory note plus around $750 million worth of shares. The deal will also enable Lenovo to take full ownership of Motorola’s Moto…

In a surprising turn of events, Google has now confirmed that it is selling Motorola’s cell phone business to Chinese PC maker Lenovo for a reported US$2.91 Billion.

The deal would involve Lenovo paying the said amount in the form of cash or a promissory note plus around $750 million worth of shares. The deal will also enable Lenovo to take full ownership of Motorola’s Moto brand and trademarks, while Google will retain much of Motorola’s patents and its advanced research unit in order to help the search giant in developing wearables in the future.

Google acquired Motorola back in 2011 for around US$12.5 Billion and has since then struggled to keep the company afloat even with its efforts to streamline the phone maker’s device line up. So the Lenovo acquisition will help the search giant minimise its losses on Motorola and at the same time will help Lenovo beef up its smartphone business in the western side of the globe.

At present, Lenovo is the second largest mobile phone maker in China and a world leader when it comes to the production of computers. With Motorola’s backing, the company can ensure that it will get a big chunk of the US market, in which the Chicago-based company is ranked at third.

There’s no word yet on how Motorola, especially its employees would transition after this deal. But we’ll certainly here more once both companies issue their press releases.

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