Google sells Motorola to the Chinese Lenovo but keeps the patents and R&D!

It was during the month of August 2011 that

Google surprised the world of mobility by buying the American Motorola for
$12.5 billion. We then spoke of a mobility landscape
has already become competitive, particularly in the area of ​​patents.

Two hypotheses were then possible concerning this repurchase: one
Apple-style vertical integration to offer Android smartphones
efficient and innovative, or else a repurchase of patents above all, preludes to
future resale.

Google seems to have taken these two paths: by creating a group of
advanced research in the field of smartphones and releasing new ones
models, while retaining Motorola as a separate entity, then finally
selling Motorola to the Chinese Lénovo while retaining in the process a large
part of the patents. All this happensjust
after the giant signed an agreement on its patents with the first
global phone manufacturer: Samsung.

So, in
a statement dropped last night, Larry Page, the head of Google,
announced the resale for a cost of 2.91 billion dollars. It indicates that the
market has become very competitive and that Motorola will be better equipped for
future

Reorganization and new products

Onremembers, however, that
difficult decisions had been made with the dismissal of 4,000
peopleand the closure of many international entities. THE
refocusing was also carried out on the exit ofa name of
restricted smartphones, a break compared to previous policy
of the American.

At the same time, Google createda research laboratory
ambitious, this one aimedto equip smartphones with
latest technologies as seen in this article. In the end,
two smartphone models bearing the “Motorola-Google” brand were released
last year, these were theMoto XetMoto
G.

The firstthat we talked about
icibrought above all a big effort on the side of personalization as well
only a few technical specificities (“always listening” mode for example).
The second was especially marked by a very very low price, allowing you to find
and
mid-range but very cheap smartphonesince sold
less than 200 euros.

That wasn't enough

But these new features, although associated with a substantial marketing budget,
don't havenot enough to straighten out Motorola's figuresWho
remained a source of losses for Google (nearly a billion dollars per year
last).

Without the reason for the sale being shared by Google management
At present, we can imagine that after havingattempted
novelties, after beingassured that the future on the patent side
was locked both internally and with the Samsung agreement, after having
weighed the impact created for its ecosystem by competing
manufacturers using their own Android OSall in one
context of a market that had become mature, it was preferable to resell what
could be, while keeping the most important!

So, besidesthe precious patents, the research team and
development implemented by Google in the field of smartphones
stay at Google. Among other things, we find therethe project of
modular smartphone seen here.

The sale remains subject to the approval of the American competition authorities
and Chinese. Time will tell what becomes of the Motorola brand now
that it leaves the bosom of American society, and what will become of its
rather promising Moto product lines.

source

founder of the site. Computer engineer and Internet specialist where he has held various positions of responsibility, Laurent has been passionate about mobility since the arrival of "PDAs" in the 90s. Journalist for 4 years for the magazine Team Palmtops (Posse Presse) and author of several books on the iPad published by Pearson.