The $2.91 billion Lenovo-Motorola deal has finally been closed with the former now the new owner of Motorola Mobility. The deal was first announced in January this year.
Lenovo said in a statement said that it has acquired Motorola brand and Motorola’s portfolio of innovative smartphones like Moto X, Moto G, Moto E and the DROID series, as well as the future Motorola product roadmap. Lenovo expects to make the Motorola business profitable in four to six quarters.
Motorola’s headquarters will remain in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart even after acquisition, it will also maintain offices around the world, including in Silicon Valley.
Lenovo notes that “With the completion of the acquisition, Lenovo welcomes the addition of a new portfolio company with nearly 3,500 employees around the world – including about 2,800 in the U.S. – who design, engineer, sell and support Motorola’s outstanding devices.”
Motorola on the other hand in a blog said “In Lenovo we have a partner that shares our mission and that brings global scale, a diverse product portfolio and a track record of seizing strategic opportunities and making the most of them. Together we will go farther, faster. With an impressive portfolio of smartphones, wearables and PCs, our two companies will be uniquely positioned to push the boundaries of choice and value, and bring exciting new experiences to people everywhere.”
When Motorola was a part of Google it built all of its Moto X handsets in the US, now the devices will be manufactured from China.
Larry Page, CEO, Google said “Motorola is in great hands with Lenovo, a company that’s all-in on making great devices.”
Liu Jun, Lenovo executive vice president and president of Lenovo’s Mobile Business Group, will be the chairman of Motorola Management Board and Rick Osterloh will remain president and chief operating officer of Motorola.
Motorola already has strong momentum in the marketplace led by highly successful launch of new smartphones which provided strong backbone to the company. Beside this Motorola also dived in the smartwatch segment with the launch of Moto 360 which captured consumer attention and established itself in emerging wearable markets.
Majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio will remain with Google, while Motorola will receive a license to this rich portfolio of patents and other intellectual property.
Approximately USD2.91 billion, which includes approx. USD 660 million in cash and 519,107,215 newly issued ordinary shares of Lenovo stock of value of roughly US$750 million were transferred to Google at close.
The remaining US$1.5 billion will be paid to Google by Lenovo in the form of a three-year promissory note.
