Google Unloads Motorola Mobility

I guess that Google doesn’t want to own a phone manufacturer anymore because they netted $3 billion from Lenovo for the Motorola Mobility division:

The deal ends Google’s short-lived foray into making consumer mobile devices and marks a pullback from its largest-ever acquisition. Google paid $12.5 billion for Motorola in 2012. Under this deal the search giant will keep the majority of Motorola’s mobile patents, considered its prize assets.

Shares in Google climbed 2.2 percent to about $1,131 in after-hours trading. Reuters reported the deal earlier on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the deal.

The purchase will give Lenovo a beach-head to compete against Apple and Samsung Electronics as well as increasingly aggressive Chinese smartphone makers in the highly lucrative U.S. arena.

Now, what’s interesting is this from the Google Blog:

Google will retain the vast majority of Motorola’s patents, which we will continue to use to defend the entire Android ecosystem.

So this is simply about the ability to make phones. Interesting. This deal still has to be approved in the US and China. The former might be an issue given the mistrust of China and Chinese companies that’s floating around at the moment. But we will see.

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