So we just found out that Lenovo is buying Motorola from Google for about $2.91 Billion. That’s $9 billion less than what Google paid for Motorola a couple years ago. It’s that low because Google gets to keep the patents they acquired in 2012. But the big question on everyone’s mind is what happens next? Will the Moto X and Moto G get updates still? Will we see a successor to the Moto X? Will Motorola still operate under the name of Motorola or will it be swallowed by Lenovo? There are a ton of questions here and obviously we can’t answer them all, or really any of them since we don’t know what’s going on in the heads of Lenovo execs. But it’s a very interesting acquisition.
In the press release, aka blog post, Larry page stated that he’s excited for Motorola’s 2014 products. Which tells me that Motorola will still be releasing phones in 2014, and that he’s likely seen what they are. So we will probably see a successor to the Moto X and Moto G this year. But beyond that, we don’t really know. Google stated that the smartphone market is super competitive and to thrive they [Motorola] need to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices. Which Google really can’t be all-in without pissing off their partners like Samsung, LG, HTC, even Lenovo. But the interesting thing here is that Google gets to keep all the patents.
So what will Lenovo do with Motorola? Well there are two things that come to mind. They could push all their mobile development (smartphones and tablets) to Motorola and sell under the Motorola name, and keep Lenovo for laptops, desktops, servers, etc., which is what they are known for. Or they could just swallow up Motorola inside Lenovo and just become one big company. But one thing is certain, I really want to see Dennis Woodside and his team remain at Motorola as they have done very well with Motorola over the past two years.
What do all of you think about this acquisition by Lenovo? Is it good for business? Let us know what you think in the comments below.