Bye bye, Moto: Lenovo takes Motorola Mobility from Google's hands

Way back in January, Google announced plans to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion. Today that deal has completed. The acquisition sees control of Moto X, Moto G, Moto E and the DROID product ranges moving out of Google's hands as Motorola operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary under Lenovo. Google's CEO is happy with the outcome: "Motorola is in great hands with Lenovo, a company that's all-in on making great devices".

Lenovo takes a total of 3,500 employees under its wing, and becomes the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Practically speaking, at least in the immediate future, little should change. Motorola will remain headquartered in Chicago, and Rick Osterloh will stay on as COO.

Liu Jun, Lenovo executive vice president and president of Lenovo’s Mobile Business Group, said, "Motorola has already built solid momentum in the market, and their recent results show consumers are excited about their exceptional products that stand out for their design and simplicity". By taking advantage of Lenovo's position in China, and Motorola's existing reputation in the rest of the world, the expectation is to hit 100 million sales in the coming year.

When the acquisition was first mentioned, Larry Page expressed his optimism for how things would pan out:

Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola into a major player within the Android ecosystem. They have a lot of experience in hardware, and they have global reach. In addition, Lenovo intends to keep Motorola's distinct brand identity -- just as they did when they acquired ThinkPad from IBM in 2005. Google will retain the vast majority of Motorola's patents, which we will continue to use to defend the entire Android ecosystem.

Motorola will be licensed to use the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, and will retain rights to the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark portfolio as well as over 2,000 patent assets. The sale is made up of $660 million in cash, $750 million in newly issued ordinary shares of Lenovo stock, and $1.5 billion on a three-year promissory note. Google also received $228 million in cash for working capital.