Google has sold its Motorola handset business to Lenovo for $2.91bn, handing the Chinese technology giant a significant step up in mission to become “the next Apple”.
The agreement comes less than two years after Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn – a deal it struck primarily so that it could get its hands on Motorola’s artillery of 17,000 patents and 7,500 patents.
Google wanted the patents in order to help mobile manufacturers that use its Android operating system in the firm’s legal battles against Apple.
Google said on Wednesday it has held on to the “vast majority” of those patents, but will offload more than 2,000 of them to Lenovo as part of their deal. The Chinese company, which is headquartered in Beijing, will also buy the Motorola mobile brand, and the company’s portfolio of smartphones such as the Moto X and the Moto G.
Google had already sold Motorola Home, a TV set-top box business acquired as part of Motorola Mobility, for $2.6bn.
Google and Lenovo - The Economist
Google and Lenovo - The Economist
