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Google Selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 Billion

John.B said:
Samsung can sell their own apps through their own store, but they'll have to figure out how to ditch Google Maps first. That's the leverage Google holds over them. For now...

BTW, I have yet to see anyone wearing these new wearables.
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You haven't seen wearables yet because it's a future market, not existing

And ditching Google Maps = Samsung coming up with its own webmapping solution. Microsoft did it, Apple did it (poorly), Nokia actually had one of the best. Samsung, with its throw money at everything / kitchen sink approach to products could've done it too if they wanted

They could've also used their Android dominance to renegotiate licensing for Google Services and cut into Google's profit stream.

Moving forward though it looks like they're now strategic partners focusing on other markets.
 
Oletros said:
So, are you saying that Nortel and Novell patent acquisition were loses?
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Depends on who you ask and how much they value those patents. Some don't think they're worth as much us Motorola/Google might think.

I'm inclined to agree.
 
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mentaluproar said:
I wonder what this acquisition will do to project Aura.
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This was from three weeks ago: Interview: Moto Execs Discuss Future of Moto X, Project Ara and More

OK – Everyone wants to know. What’s up with Project Ara, your modular smartphone project. Can we see it soon?

“There’s no timetable on it,” Horowitz said. “Conceptually, we’ve been really surprised with the idea. It has resonated with a certain population. For the broader market, though, it’s still early to think about a product like that. It gets back to choice — consumers get to choose aesthetic, and they get to choose a larger set of functional options. They can say ‘I’m going to optimize it for this weekend, I’ll be away from a charger, I’ll bring a lot of battery modules.’ Or, at a sporting event, bring a zoom module for better pictures. It further shows that consumer choice is important. We’ll push on that very hard.”

“You’ll definitely hear more about Aura in the next few months.”

You’ve been very public that Google was hands-off on the Moto X. Will you continue to operate that way?

“We’re happy with our position in Google,” Horowitz explained. “We run ourselves independently and we run as any other OEM does. Google has seen that we can actually build products that are meaningful in lots of markets. I don’t think you’ll see any significant change in their involvement one way or the other.”
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avanpelt said:
Wow, didn't see that sale coming. I wonder why? All the reviews I've heard about the Moto X have been quite positive.
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Because Google's Motorola unit was losing money hand over fist nd there was no prospect of it ever becoming profitable. Other questions?
 
the8thark said:
So Google will lose about 9 billion dollars just to keep a few of Motorola's best patents and sell the rest? The Google shareholders would not be happy about Google pissing away their money like this.
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Google stock is up 2.63% in aftermarket trading. Never try to apply logic to the stock market.
 
MrXiro said:
More like "selling the corpse of Motorola" after having their way with it and tossing it to the curb... they didn't even think it was worth 1/2 of what they paid after that raping.
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Not to mention Google's complete disregard for Motorola employees. I suspect Lenovo will move all R&D and manufacturing overseas.

Seems like Apple is doing it's fair share at creating US jobs thru investments, US based suppliers, it's app ecosystem, data centers , etc.
 
Ted13 said:
Because Google's Motorola unit was losing money hand over fist nd there was no prospect of it ever becoming profitable. Other questions?
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Also because they're just selling off the dead weight to Lenovo. Google is still keeping a bunch of patents and Motorola's Advanced Technology and Projects group.
 
koppie644 said:
Lenovo bought the PC business of IBM many years ago, which turned out successful

Now, IBM server, and Motorola

I hope one day they buy Microsoft and Google, :D
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I hope Google goes bust.
Apple should have bought them when they were smaller, made a better adsense/adwords deal for consumers and kept them as a search engine.

Now they're just a fat search engine/data mining company that looks for new products so they can track you even further. I personally don't want Google to have a big profile of me that's connected with my mobile phone. We know they tried to hack Apple in order to do the same with the iPhone... with Androids it's not even hacking, it's a feature!
 
proline said:
Buy high, sell low. Way to take care of the shareholder's money, Google!

This also goes to show that Google's only interest in Moto was that they thought they could weaponize standards essential patents. Once the various judges told them to buzz off, they finally gave up.

Total wasted shareholder money: $15 billion+ when you count the two years of covering Moto's losses, the failed lawsuits, and the discount they gave Lenovo.
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I do not think Google shareholders are disappointed with GOOG performance at all. I am not so sure about Apple shareholders though.
 
Oletros said:
So, are you saying that Nortel and Novell patent acquisition were loses?
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I guess it depends on the motive.

If the motive for purchasing the Nortel patents was reduce the risk from another party using the patents against the consortium (to which Google was invited) then one would have to determine what that risk was. Was the risk was to prevent (Apple or MS) from reaching/blocking strategic future goals? or a cost avoidance of paying even higher royalties if it got into the wrong hands? or some combination?
 
proline said:
Total wasted shareholder money: $15 billion+ when you count the two years of covering Moto's losses, the failed lawsuits, and the discount they gave Lenovo.
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Of course the stock price won't take a hit - Google can do no wrong.
 
Nicky G said:
Is it wrong to feel schadenfreude at this news? ;)
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Not, it's not wrong at all. Some might think it could be a bit weird maybe, the fact of being so emotional about a company might appear funny (in a non-haha way (...although... never mind :) ) plus without knowing Googles ulterior motives it's hard to tell if this is a good or bad thing. The few billion dollars won't hurt them anyway.
 
Slashgear had an article which broke down just how much money Google lost on the Motorola deal, and surprisingly its not that much.

12.4B purchase price
- 2.9B cash acquired from Motorola
- 2.4B Motorola deferred tax asset
-2.35B sale of set-top box division to Arris
- 75M sale of Motorola's China and Brazil operations to Flextronics
-2.91B sale of Motorola to Lenovo
+1.2B Motorola operating losses

Grand Total: 2.29B

So basically Google paid $2.29B for Motorola's best patents and their Advanced Technology and Projects group.
 
rillrill said:
not really. they are unloading a loss. probably writing off the taxes, and they're keeping the patents. not much of a loss...stock should go up.
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From other site:

They bought Motorola for $12.5 billion. Motorola had $3 billion cash on hand. So immediately the real cost was $9 billion. Then they sold the set top box nonsense for $2.3 billion. Thats now $6.7 billion Motorola cost them. Then they were able to write off at least $2.4 billion in taxes due to the loses of Motorola. That brings the cost down to $4.3 billion. Then they sold the rest of Motorola for $2.9 billion, which brings the cost for the vast majority of Motorola’s patents and this advanced technology group and whatever other deals they were able to make to a total of $1.4 billion
 
And Google continues to arm foreign countries (Samsung, HTC, Sony, etc.) against American competitors (Apple, HP) while turning over entire companies to Asia (Motorola) in the process.

Yet the Google fanatics still spin circles thinking they're rooting for the "good guys." What a joke.

I used to love Google. Now I loathe them. Wake up people. Your hero is a phony.
 
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