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Lenovo to buy Google's Motorola handset division
- tptacek 13y agoThey're keeping the patents, right?
- jcdavis 13y agoAlmost certainly. Still, surely the patents aren't worth $9B are they?
- presty 13y agovery strange decision by google
- mediaman 13y agoThe article suggests that 10,000 patents are part of the deal. I'm not sure if that's the same number as were originally purchased, but I have to think it's the lion's share of them.
- Mikeb85 13y agoI'm sure there's something in the deal for Google to at least retain rights to use the patents. Likewise Lenovo wouldn't buy Motorola without the patents.
- maxerickson 13y agoI see 'certain patents'. I don't see a reason to read a number out of that.
- mediaman 13y agoYou're right, I was looking at a different article. Source for the 10,000 number is below. http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-01/30/content_17265533.htm http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-01/30/content_17265533.htm
- berberous 13y agoIt's from China Daily: "The acquisition, worth at least $2 billion, will include more than 10,000 mobile communications patents currently held by the United States company, according to a person familiar with the matter." [1] Wikipedia said of the original Google purchase: "Motorola Mobility has 17,000 patents with 7,500 more patents pending." [1] http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-01/30/content_17265533.htm http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-01/30/content_17265533.htm
- sureshv 13y agoMost likely cross license with Google staying as the owner of the patents.
- muyuu 13y agoThey're probably worth more than that for Google if they are make-or-break for Android.
- Yhippa 13y agoStep 1: Buy Motorola Mobility Step 2: Firewall the two companies Step 3: Extract patents from Motorola through the firewall Step 4: Profit???
- yitchelle 13y agoAnd to think that they've just released the MotoX, and now this.
- sliverstorm 13y agoI was so close to buying one, I'm going to have to hold off now.
- mediaman 13y agoHuge announcement if true, and if this accounts for the entirety of the Motorola purchase that Google made. That means that in less than two years, Google shredded 85% of the $13bn paid for Motorola. At the time, the high price paid was excused for the patents, because the business itself did not generate nearly enough earnings to justify the price. Now, if it is true that the patents are part of the deal (the article states they are), it's proof that these did not have nearly the value anticipated. It's also a big statement on Google's ability to succeed in the hardware market, where they've never seemed to be able to gain real success despite their attempts with notebooks and phones. Edit: the article states the deal would include more than 10,000 patents. Originally Motorola was estimated to have 17,000 patents at the time of its purchase by Google. So while this is still speculation, and we do not know full details, there's a good chance Google may have cherry-picked the patents they felt were important to retain. Follow-up edit: the 10,000 patent number comes from this article: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-01/30/content_17265533.htm http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-01/30/content_17265533.htm Edit 3: The value destruction here isn't so bad as 85%. See Magicalist's comment below for a good summary - Google picked up a lot of cash, tax loss assets, and $2.2bn from the sale of one of Motorola's subsidiary businesses as part of that $13bn original purchase price. Still a loss but not as dramatic as the headline number.
- lotso 13y ago> It's also a big statement on Google's ability to succeed in the hardware market, where they've never seemed to be able to gain real success despite their attempts with notebooks and phones. And Google TV. Let's not forget that huge failure. "By the summer of 2012, the majority of the televisions you see in stores will have Google TV embedded in it." -Eric Schmidt
- RankingMember 13y agoVery odd news. Was looking forward to seeing what Google could do with their weight thrown behind hardware.
- jfb 13y agoI'm curious as to what exactly Lenovo is getting out of the deal. I hear good things about the new Motorola phones, but is the midlevel handset business really that attractive a one? I doubt HTC or Sony are feeling particularly good about their exposure to it.
- Mikeb85 13y agoThe same thing Lenovo got from buying IBM's PC and now server businesses. Instant inroads into a foreign market. I mean, Lenovo went from a brand no one had ever heard of to the worlds largest PC maker in a decade or so. They're pretty awesome at squeezing money out of low margin businesses and creating some pretty high quality products (their own branded smartphones are pretty awesome looking, wish they sold in Canada).
- pimeys 13y agoThey might look awesome in the pictures. I was testing their handsets while visiting Thailand and the only good thing about them was that they were cheap. The builds were pretty bulky and the OS felt quite slow when comparing to the Nexus 5 right next to them. Of course you paid 3000-6000 THB from then when Nexus was 16900 THB...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- staunch 13y agoGoogle looks a lot smarter to me now. They paid way too much for Motorola Mobility just to get the patents. Maybe they were forced to buy a bunch of stuff they didn't want? It makes sense to recoup as much of the money as they can by selling off what they didn't even want.
- rtpg 13y agoSlightly disappointed this is happening, Google having its own place to start really getting invested in consumer hardware seemed like a good thing (getting "pure" experiences without having to pay top dollar). I got the Moto G and it's probably one of the better value propositions out there. I wonder how things will go with Lenovo in charge.
- mindcrime 13y agoWow, that seems... sudden. If the Motorola Mobility purchase was meant to be strategic (and surely a purchase that big was), how could they have possibly had time to implement that strategy and truly gauge its effectiveness? I'd say this announcement, if true, is downright shocking. Not saying it's wrong, mind you, just that it's very, very surprising. At least from the Google perspective. Now, Lenovo, OTOH, this seems to fit the "PC Plus" view very well. If this is true, it could be a huge win for Lenovo.
- fredgrott 13y agowe are forgetting something here at least the TC post did Moto still has Fed/Military contracts as this is why foreign buyers were nto considered the first time around. This might not go through to completion
- gnaffle 13y agoThis is Motorola Mobility though, which only includes the cell phone business and was spun off from Motorola (not called Motorola Solutions) and later sold to Google.
- fharper1961 13y agoSmart move from Google, they remove the possibility of being suspected of favoritism. And I suppose they keep the patents, which is what they were really interested in all along.
- colinbartlett 13y agoArticle says it includes "certain patents".
- objclxt 13y agoI don't know how anyone can see selling off a company for $9.5 billion less than you paid for it two years ago as a "smart move". It is prudent to get rid of Motorola now before it eats up even more cash, but the smart thing would have been to never buy the company in the first place.
- dba7dba 13y agoI agree. Don't care how much money you have or are making annual, but losing 9.5 billion in TWO years doesn't look good. What's google thinking?
- evandena 13y agoAs noted a half dozen times throughout the comments, they didn't lose 9.5 billion, it's looking more like possibly 2 billion. But they also had a strong bargaining chip vs Samsung, and will likely reap benefits far exceeding their Moto stake.
- dba7dba 13y agoMy comment was way early in the thread so the dozens of comments saying they didn't lose 9.5 billion didn't exist yet when I posted... Still, it's a strange/not-so-great move on google's part. It's sad how a once mighty company is being sold around like a piece of house by some property flippers, and costing the flipper pretty 2 billion too...
- 13y ago
- dba7dba 13y agoI wonder if Samsung was aware of this? Were Motorola patents part of the cross-licensing?
- badman_ting 13y agoI wonder if it's true that G did buy it in somewhat of a panic due to what was happening with patents at the time, as some have speculated. I dunno how something as protracted as an acquisition can happen as a result of panicking, though.
- codelap 13y agoI suspect the patents were proving to be of less value than Google thought. Combine that with Samsung and other big players investigating other OS's for fear of Google pulling a Microsoft with the Surface. Any way I slice it though, it still sounds like a 10+ billion dollar mistake.
- jareds 13y agoI wonder if I should be in a hurry to buy a Moto G now as a test device and secondary phone? I'm not sure how good Lenovo's cell phones are.
- scottcowley 13y agoOne big experiment by Google to cheaply increase worldwide mobile connectivity and subsequent ad dollars.
- megablast 13y agoSo much spin I get dizzy just reading this sentence.
- tking8924 13y agoFrom the Lenovo perspective, this would be two very large acquisitions in a short span of time. Very interested to see what they do with this...
- mindcrime 13y agoI have to admit, I'm thinking "buy Lenovo stock" right now. I like what they're doing lately.
- dsl 13y agoI'm not a huge fan of Android, but I had hoped that Google would use Motorola to take a holistic approach to security similar to what Apple can do. This would have been a serious pain for both the NSA and the PLA, but instead they are selling the whole business to the PLA.
- ihsw 13y agoMakes me wonder how this affects their recent patent pact with Samsung -- now that they have Samsung as a form of support, they no longer need Motorola Mobility? Perhaps a patent pact with Motorola Mobility would've been better than buying them outright?
- jrs99 13y agoGoogle is a mess. Seriously. What happened? It's like there's been a void in their executive leadership in the last couple years.
- k-mcgrady 13y agoOne co-founder is busy with moonshots and the other with getting Google+ integrated everywhere he can. I say this only slightly in jest. Google's two co-founders are focussing on something most people hate and things that have a small chance of paying off many many years from now.
- snaky 13y ago>and the other with getting Google+ integrated everywhere he can And what's more important - everywhere he cannot
- evo_9 13y agoThat is still too much for Motorola handset division. Google must estatic at he chance to recoup that much from one of the worst deals they've ever done.
- ChikkaChiChi 13y agoI wonder if this has anything to do with Apple's focus on the Chinese market. Google could effectively hand off a tightly wound partnership to an established Chinese company in Lenovo that can then leverage Android more effectively in a head to head battle with Apple. In the interim, Google keeps its hands clean and doesn't enter into the discussions that plague any sort of success in the Chinese marketplace.
- psbp 13y agoThere are plenty of strong android competitors in the chinese market. Google's Hugo Barra headed to Xiaomi just last year.
- adventured 13y agoApple will never compete for serious market share in China no matter what happens. They'll be lucky to hold onto 5% to 7% of that market. The domestics will dominate, due to nationalism, price, and those companies better understanding what Chinese consumers want. There's a reason Android already has 80% (and climbing, as iOS loses market share) of China.
- twistedpair 13y agoGood point. The Chinese market is all about political approval and you're expected to bend over backwards for them. But then again... Google has pretty much burned that bridge pulling out of China.
- ulfw 13y agoDoubtful Lenovo would keep Google Apps, Search, Gmail etc on their Chinese-market Android phones.
- slg 13y agoI am sure I am part of the minority on HN involved in the enterprise market, but I am intrigued by what Lenovo's plans might be for Motorola. With their already established relationships and customer base, Lenovo should have a much easier time selling their hardware than Google did. At the very least, this move might be the final death knell for Blackberry.
- jjindev 13y agoI have a related suspicion ... that Google made the deal in part because they believe Lenovo will run Motorola well, with goals compatible to Google and Android. I don't think Google was ever into Motorola to make it pay. They were there for strategy, and Lenovo can do that too. (Don't forget that Lenovo just bought IBM's x86 server business, and so is "going big.") Update, sorry for the bad link http://www.pcworld.com/article/2090680/lenovo-agrees-to-buy-ibms-server-business-for-23-billion.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2090680/lenovo-agrees-to-buy-...
- joezydeco 13y agoThere are a lot of Chicago real-estate agents that won't sleep well tonight. The Mobility move to downtown was supposed to happen in a few months. Google signed a 15-year deal on 750,000 square feet (17+ acres) of office space at the Merchandise Mart. Will Leonovo assume that lease?
- bcohen5055 13y ago3Billion dollars? Wasn't Lenovo going to pay close to 4.5 Billion for RIM in october? Either RIM was overvalued or this is a steal
- IBM 13y agoThis makes this tweet[1] from Chris Dixon hilarious: "Which strategy wins the future: stock buybacks or investing in AI + robots + smart devices?" I mean it really shouldn't surprise anyone that a VC would be cheerleading expensive acquisitions with no regard for shareholder value or whether it has any hope of making a significant return. But the real answer to his question is: organic growth. And if you are confident in your ability to create organic growth, then the best way to use large amounts of cash to create shareholder value over the long-term is stock buybacks (assuming you have the cash to fund that organic growth and your shares are undervalued, which in Apple's case, both are true). [1]https://twitter.com/cdixon/status/427602474086584320 https://twitter.com/cdixon/status/427602474086584320
- mediaman 13y agoI know Google is trying to break out of their traditional business, but it seems like they've been trying to do that for years and nearly all their revenue is still ads. Just because very smart entrepreneurs are able to capitalize on an opportunity (search) and turn it into one of the world's largest companies, doesn't mean they can arbitrarily do it again.
- sliverstorm 13y agoTo my eyes, Google has been looking for the "Next Google" since at least 2004 or so.
- jerf 13y agoHas any company the size of Google ever successfully pulled of this sort of diversification? (Honest question, there may well be answers I'm not thinking of. But I do mean very large companies, I know smaller ones diversify all the time successfully (and unsuccessfully).) For context, you think about a company like Microsoft or Google "diversifying", and, you know, for them it's not enough to "merely" build a $250 million/year business for it to be considered a leg of the metaphorical company stool, instead of just a "hobby". How can you hope to scale up a new core competency to the requisite levels? (It seems "merely" having vast resources is no guarantee of success.)
- altero 13y agoLenovo is already making decent phones and in china are quite big. Perhaps they want on US market.
- sirkneeland 13y agoIt's really too bad. The Moto X is my favorite phone since the Nokia N9. And I work at Nokia.
- pearjuice 13y agoIt's over, Android is finished. With Google parting hands with Motorola and abandoning Nexus all together (Google Play Edition phones will take over), the consumer is entirely dependent of consumer-oriented manufactures like Samsung. A black day for Android, a good day for Samsung its monopoly.
- mcintyre1994 13y agoHave you got a good source on that abandoning Nexus thing? I saw in on The Verge forum but the source was just repeating a rumour. (http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/01/27/google-to-kill-nexus-brand-next-year-rumor-says/ http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/01/27/google-to-kill-nexus...)
- billnguyen 13y agoNexus phones/products have always been made by external partners (HTC, Samsung, LG, etc...), none of which have ever been Motorola. Why does the Moto sale affect the Nexus line?
- Raphael 13y agoThere are Google Edition devices from many manufacturers. Just keep those coming. It seems unlikely they would all choose to discontinue. Surely Google provides incentives.
- dclara 13y agoYou have a point and insight. This is critical to a lot of Android users. I sort of believe what you said because other sources also implied Android's head is gone and it's under ChromeOS now. we can imagine what will happen. I tried the ChromeBook for a second, even the sellers don't like it. Other than lock users to the Google platform, I don't see any value there. Really sad if what you predicted is true.
- rayiner 13y agoUnfortunate. I was sitting waiting for a Moto X successor to see if I could get a phone designed in the U.S./assembled in the U.S.
- footpath 13y agohttp://investor.google.com/releases/2014/0129.html http://investor.google.com/releases/2014/0129.html "Google will maintain ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, including current patent applications and invention disclosures. As part of its ongoing relationship with Google, Lenovo will receive a license to this rich portfolio of patents and other intellectual property. Additionally Lenovo will receive over 2,000 patent assets, as well as the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark portfolio."
- lijman 13y agoIf sold,the brand motorola will surely be killed.Welcome lenovo X!
- m0nastic 13y agoDespite the huge delta in what they paid for Motorola, vs what they're reported to be selling it for, other people have pointed out that the way the deal was structured may not actually wind up making it a huge financial loss for Google. I certainly can't think of any way to spin the way this turned out to be positive for Google, but I don't think the absolute numbers will worry them all that much. I haven't seen anyone here mention that at the time of the acquisition, Motorola was attempting to sue all the other Android manufacturers over its patents; and it was posited that Google was basically forced to buy Motorola to keep them from poisoning the ecosystem. I assume that not happening was probably worth more to Google than what they would up having to pay for Motorola. Psychologically, it does help reinforce the idea that Google really doesn't know what it's doing with regards to hardware (although hey, they just paid more for Nest than potentially what they're selling Motorola for).
- palebluedot 13y agoGoogle just confirmed it, and explained some of their reasoning: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/lenovo-to-acquire-motorola-mobility.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/lenovo-to-acquire-mot... I'm inexplicably bummed about this. I was excited to see what Google would do long term with Motorola, and I thought the Moto X and Moto G was a great start. I thought eventually, a Google+Motorola powerhouse could provide a nice yin to Apple's yang.
- jcastro 13y agoYeah I really thought that the Moto X and Moto G brought Moto back. A pretty nice pure Android handset with a $179 full price is insane!
- dragonwriter 13y ago> I'm inexplicably bummed about this. I was excited to see what Google would do long term with Motorola, and I thought the Moto X and Moto G was a great start. I think Google is a lot more interested in pointing hardware companies in the right direction and then supplying software and online services than in being a hardware company. Particularly, Google isn't interested in weakening relationships with its hardware partners in, e.g., the OHA being a long-term strategic competitor with them.
- michaelt 13y agoI'm inexplicably bummed about this. Perhaps because in the PC industry, where vendors like Dell install crapware like McAfee trials, we've been trained to prefer our software without 'improvements' from intermediaries.
- Pxtl 13y agoI bought my wife a Moto G. I've been pretty impressed with the device - I was hopeful for the future of Moto/Google. This is disappointing. Lenovo is an intensely boring company, they're not going to do anything fun with the Moto brand.
- hablahaha 13y ago
- huangc10 13y agoThis is bad news. Motorola handsets were starting to look good. Now that Lenovo is taking over it will definitely go downhill from here.
- skaevola 13y agoLenovo has been looking to enter the U.S. Smartphone for some time[0]. Acquiring a newly revitalized brand seems like a fairly good plan to do so. 0: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323336104578502843289017624 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142412788732333610...
- belgianguy 13y agoWhile many seem to predict doom and gloom here, perhaps Google decided it rather gets an extra ally (Lenovo) that could produce Android phones and recoup some money they spent on the acquisition in the process? It also clears Google of any hints of favouritism towards Moto and frees up a lot of resources. I don't think Google knew what to do with a mass-producing phone manufacturer (plus its IP) under its direct control, just like a cat staring at a ball of yarn, swatting at it for some time, before running off to do something else. Verticalisation used to be the bees-knees and has a lot of lock-in potential, but I don't think that's where Google's ambition lies, I feel like it was weighing them down. Google seems to have found a new niche to explore, though. It seems to have circled the 'Internet Of Things' on their todo list quite clearly and seem to be taking no risk of arriving late to the party. In a sense, what Apple did earlier to secure its iPhone launch, is what Google is doing now wrt the IOT. That and the smartphone market seems to be slowing down to a point of maximum saturation. Then there's not much to do for Google with a mid-tier phone manufacturer under its belt with ever decreasing margins. On the other hand, who would be a good ally to have when you were interested in the Internet Of Things? Maybe some manufacturer which produces everything from smartphones, washing machines, TVs to tanks and ships, and which coincidentally also happens to be the biggest Android manufacturer? A slightly cynical me perhaps even sees the Motorola sell-off as some sort of token sacrifice to ease all worries on both sides of the 10 year patent deal (I could imagine Samsung not releasing Tizen as a smartphone OS to compete with Android, but perhaps use it as a basis for IOT-related appliances, whatever those might be, and complement Android rather than fight it). But that's all speculation from my side, but to be honest, I was yearning for some new technology developments, most of the land has been claimed in the space of smartphone technology and most of the battles taking place nowadays seem to be patent trolls and patent bullies doing what they do best: stink it up for everyone involved.
- cromwellian 13y agoRegardless of the Google specifics, we should really have some sympathy for the Motorola employees. I doubt Lenovo will stomach quarterly losses the way Google did while they restructured. My guess is, we're going to see big layoffs.
- raganwald 13y agoMy guess is, we're going to see big layoffs. Sometimes, a company sells a division or wholly owned business because it is either that or massive layoffs, and it's better for morale to write down a few billion dollars than to fire thousands of people. Even if you're working in one of the profitable businesses, a real chill goes around when the pink slip printing press starts hammering.
- cromwellian 13y agoTrue, but Google has a number of unprofitable divisions. Technically, if you look at G+, Maps, and to some extent, Chrome and Android, which are given away for free, if these were separate businesses, they would bleeding money. I guess technically you could look at Chrome like Mozilla and imagine some ongoing deal to be the default search box. YouTube had no ROI for a long time, certainly longer than the 2 years Google gave Motorola. Motorola was probably going to go bankrupt before Google bought them. Like Apple when it was bleeding money in the 90s, it needed a way to gain time to reinvent itself. Google's purchase probably prevented mass layoffs in the short term, but has Motorola been given enough time to turn itself around? I dunno. We will see what happens shortly after Lenovo takes control. Given Motorola's history in the technology industry, it's sad to see them go under. Reminds me of Silicon Graphics, the company that basically invented the majority of the fundamental facets of modern computer graphics, gone, while people gleefully play games on their mobile GPUs unaware of where we'd be without them.
- JosephBrown 13y ago"Google will retain the vast majority of Motorola’s patents, which we will continue to use to defend the entire Android ecosystem." http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/lenovo-to-acquire-motorola-mobility.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/lenovo-to-acquire-mot...
- zmmmmm 13y agoIt's hard not to draw connections between the various events of the last week or so: 1) Google/Samsung patent deal, 2) Google purchases Nest, 3) Google sells Motorola, 4) Samsung suddenly cools on Tizen. Theory: Google gets offered the opportunity to buy Nest. Either Larry or Sergey gets serious interested. They bought Motorola because they wanted a serious stake in the hardware market. They toss up which is better - Motorola or Nest? They decide Nest is the winner. They realize the valuations are such that they could pretty much just swap Motorola for Nest. But there's a problem: Motorola was also their insurance for making sure they would always have an OEM to make Android handsets. If Samsung ever turned - they would never find themselves unable to secure a Nexus partner. So they go to Samsung, and offer a deal: patents, guarantees of support, probably other stuff: as long as you agree to make Android your flagship each year AND GPE phone version of it. This seems good enough. Motorola not needed any more and they can get a new toy to play with - Nest is the winner.
- Zigurd 13y agoBuying Moto handsets was a brain-fart from the beginning. It's a good day for Google shareholders that Google decided to take the perceived financial hit (in reality they had taken that hit already) and unload a small-ish mediocre handset OEM and achieve clarity in their OEM partner relationships. The biggest red flag I had seen re Google last year were the ads Moto ads with the tag line "A Google company." I could not think of a less Google-like company than an old-line handset OEM.
- yabatopia 13y agoI don't think Nest has much to do with it. As I see it: 1) Google and Samsung sign a sweet patent deal, 2)Samsung halts or slows down the development of replacements for Google apps and promises not to fork Android, 3)In return Google drops Motorola, a direct competitor to Samsung.
- smaddali 13y agoI agree with you. This may be a straight up barter with Samsung
- deleted 13y ago
- skizm 13y agoBetter article: http://investor.google.com/releases/2014/0129.html http://investor.google.com/releases/2014/0129.html Assuming that google keeps the majority of/important patents then they basically bought the patents for $4.74 billion. They sold the "set top" division for $2.35 billion and now they're selling the mobility division for $2.91 billion. They also kept about $3 billion in cash that Motorolla was holding when they bought them for $13 billion. That's not even counting whatever tax incentives they get from these deals. So all in all, it isn't as bad of a deal as it looks like on the surface (in fact I assume it is what Google was planning from the beginning).
- eli 13y agoCurious: why would a deal like that have tax incentives?
- unavoidable 13y agoMotorola was bleeding money when Google purchased them. Google can deduct the operating losses from their profits to reduce their tax burden. In addition, Motorola likely has many depreciating capital assets, and when the loss was booked by the sale, they can also write those off from their profits. A deal like this will have tons of tax lawyers going through them to maximize their benefits.
- skizm 13y agoTax benefits from the purchase I think. They were saving something like $700m a year in taxes for a bunch of years following the purchase. I forget the details.
- cmollis 13y agosuper-terrific, (non_)mathematical-ish analysis of their original purchase of Motorola (from 2012). http://brandnewgames.tumblr.com/post/26984798194/commuter-train-analysis-of-android-windows-phone http://brandnewgames.tumblr.com/post/26984798194/commuter-tr...
- ulfw 13y agoWith the sale of Motorola, the intro of Chrome Apps for Mobile, the stepping down of Andy Rubin - is Google losing interest in Android? When will we see ChromeOS for Mobile?
- mtsmithhn 13y agoDid Andy step down or finally have an opportunity to peruse his dream? > For Rubin, manufacturing is a return to the past. According to a 2007 profile, Rubin began as a robot engineer at lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss and had a brief stint at Apple as a manufacturing engineer before devoting his working hours to developing computers instead. However, robotics remained a hobby, with Rubin both building his own and amassing a collection of robots from Japan.
- ulfw 13y agoCould very well be! And why not follow your dreams when you're rich? Fact still remains that Android is now under ChromeOS chief Sundar Pichai.
- Zigurd 13y agoBest move all year for Google. Owning Moto's handset business was a goiter on Google, and the lack of clarity on Google's intentions might have been necessary to extract maximum value from this sale, but it was very bad in every other way.
- spiderPig 13y agoGood move. Nipping it in the bud is better than dredging it along years and eventually 'writing it off' like a certain company.
- alexeisadeski3 13y agoAs a Verizon customer who's reliant upon Dev Ed handsets, let me just say that this sucks.
- dschiptsov 13y agoIs it a signal that ARM based handset business (and technology) is peaked?)
- Pxtl 13y agoWhat!? But... I loved the Moto G. And honestly, I don't get the love people have for Lenovo. Thinkpads are... okay. Lenovo's ownership of the brand could be described as stewardship at best. But they took the leading brand in PC laptops and kept it the leading brand in PC laptops while tablets and Apple destroyed the entire market for PC laptops. Lenovo will never do anything great with the brand. Google had promise.
- Pxtl 13y agoI know this is a fantasy at best, but I keep fantasizing they're doing this so they can have the cash liquid... to buy Nintendo. Or Sony. I like Google's attitude towards hardware and I want them in the gaming industry.
- ricardobeat 13y agoSo we can finally get all the AAA titles for free and covered in ads!
- snaky 13y agoNintendo is on sale? Last time I checked they declined $25 bln Microsoft offer
- pbreit 13y agoThe thing that always surprised me was how quick Google was to get out of the set-top business. That seemed like a pretty incredible opportunity to me.
- jsz0 13y agoThe timing of this (vs. the Google/Samsung arrangement) really makes it look like Google's involvement with Motorola was simply to intimidate Samsung. The message was we'll piss away our advertising revenue to destroy you if you don't do what we want. Short term success maybe but in the long term it puts Google firmly on the Microsoft track. You can only gain so much via intimidation.
- notatoad 13y agoAlternate theory: this is samsung throwing their weight around. Google purchased Moto because they wanted to get into the devices business, Samsung tells google to get rid of it or else they will continue to diverge their ~70% of the android market away from google's version of android. Google clearly wants to be a hardware manufacturer: they've been circling the market for a while now, trying different things: they bought moto, they bought nest, they keep doing nexus devices, glass, the ever-growing lineup of google play editions, chromebooks... I don't think they bought moto just to be a bully, or just for the patents.
- spinchange 13y agoIt seems to me that this must have been the intention all along. When Google purchased them, Motorola was about to start suing other members of the Android ecosystem because they were that desperate. So the deal was always defensive. I think the value of Motorola's IP was always overstated and Google knew that but it made for a good story for shareholders along with Google signalling they were serious about hardware. And maybe they are, but the whole "American made" angle they took and all the tax incentives they got, and for what...to sell the company 7 months after launching a flagship phone??? It's a great phone, but it looks to me like this whole thing was set-up to sell out from the start. If so, it was a brilliant unwinding of something that could have been very bad for Android at a critical time. As others have pointed out, they didn't take as bad a bath financially as it seems either. The alternative narrative is that they suddenly had a change of heart because of Nest, but why not just integrate or put that team in charge of Motorola if it's about talent? In any case, the Moto X is a really nice phone. I feel bad for the employees of Motorola and find this maneuvering very "corporate" and un-Googley.
- Eye_of_Mordor 13y agoGoogle are corporate, they were the good guys.
- justin66 13y agoIt's a tangent but I'm a little disappointed by this latest executive-level assault on the language, from Larry Page: > So until then, it’s business as usual. I’m phenomenally impressed with everything the Motorola team has achieved and confident that with Lenovo as a partner, Motorola will build more and more great products for people everywhere. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/lenovo-to-acquire-motorola-mobility.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/lenovo-to-acquire-mot... "Partner." Yeah...
- 72deluxe 13y agoVery interesting! Lenovo's laptops seem good quality to me. Hopefully this will make my Atrix and Lapdock more sought after.... and my Xoom..... (perhaps too much Motorola hardware???)
- Touche 13y agoMy guess is that Google and Samsung have come to some arrangement that will bring them closer. Perhaps Samsung gets more engineers working on Android directly, perhaps Samsung drops S-Voice and some of its proprietary stuff.
- mzs 13y agoAny word on if phones will still be assembled in US? Some Moto X models are today.