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Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

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21–30 of 86 posts

Re: Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

#21

Interesting, Google really really really doesn't want to be in the physical goods business, and yet they are buying robot companies. This is the first time I believe a large 'service' company is struggling with businesses in the "goods" side of the economy, we have seen many companies like IBM who started out all 'goods' and have been moving into all 'services'. Pretty good win for China as well.

Not sure if you read the article but it says:

"But the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices. It’s why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo. (...) As a side note, this does not signal a larger shift for our other hardware efforts. The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry. We’re excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems."

I read it like this: "smartphones are turning into commodities and though they are not as commoditized as PCs yet they're on their way, Lenovo is good at selling commoditized low margin computers already. We're focusing on wearable and robots where the potential for growth is much stronger for us." Just a wild guess.

Re: Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

#22
Google is happy to strengthen another Android OEM to balance out the ecosystem, keeping Samsung from dominating. They focus on the software which is their strength. I'm curious whether they have some clause to keep Lenovo from dropping Android in the next x years.

Sounds like a bad deal at first, but considering this and looking at the numbers it's a good move for both companies.

Re: Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

#24
post #12

Next year, Microsoft will buy Lenovo for $22 billion. It will nicely round out Microsoft's already expansive Xbox+Surface+Lumia hardware division with a full range of PCs and x86 servers. Perhaps more pressingly, the deal will also ensure that the only growing PC maker stays in Microsoft's camp and abandons its flirtations with Android... The last remains of Motorola Mobility will be dissolved into the MS division th…

Lenovo is a bit more than 10% indirectly owned by the Chinese government. I don't think they would ever agree to such an acquisition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Ownership

Re: Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

#25
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really true, though. Motorola Mobility had ~$3B in cash at the acquisition point, and Google immediately sold off the cable box unit to Arris for $2.35B. Add in the ~$3B from this sale, and we are now at a cost of ~$4B. And I believe there were several tax advantages for Google, so it wouldn't surprise me if this whole acquisition only cost around $1B or so (and they keep the patents).

Ok, not as bad as I originally calculated. If that money went to lobbying though, it'd be fair to argue that they'd be closer to solving the fundamental issues there are in patent laws vs. acquiring a portfolio of patents that are only a temp. fix.

Is there any study that shows the cost of lobbying (in the case of moving major ideas like patents)?

Re: Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

#26
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really true, though. Motorola Mobility had ~$3B in cash at the acquisition point, and Google immediately sold off the cable box unit to Arris for $2.35B. Add in the ~$3B from this sale, and we are now at a cost of ~$4B. And I believe there were several tax advantages for Google, so it wouldn't surprise me if this whole acquisition only cost around $1B or so (and they keep the patents).

Ok, not as bad as I originally calculated. If that money went to lobbying though, it'd be fair to argue that they'd be closer to solving the fundamental issues there are in patent laws vs. acquiring a portfolio of patents that are only a temp. fix.

Sadly one has to bring a gun to a duel, because if you are going to wait for gun lobbying to stop your duel, you're probably going to get shot in the meantime.

Not that lobbying isn't good in the long run, but you still need protection right now.

Re: Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

#27
post #14

This comment on the post summarizes well >> Nicolas Charbonnier Moto total cost $12.5B to Goog in 2011: - $3.2B Moto's 2011 cash - $2.4B Moto's 2011 deferred tax assets - $2.35B Moto's Set-top-box business sold in 2012 - $75M Moto's factories business sold in 2013 (incl 7K factory employees) - $2.91B Moto's Mobility business sold in 2014 Thus Moto's remaining assets including patents, buildings (in Chicago and elsewh…

I thought the Chicago (technically the Schaumburg office I believe) moto office was part of the Mobility group? Google is retaining those people?

Re: Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

#29
post #14

This comment on the post summarizes well >> Nicolas Charbonnier Moto total cost $12.5B to Goog in 2011: - $3.2B Moto's 2011 cash - $2.4B Moto's 2011 deferred tax assets - $2.35B Moto's Set-top-box business sold in 2012 - $75M Moto's factories business sold in 2013 (incl 7K factory employees) - $2.91B Moto's Mobility business sold in 2014 Thus Moto's remaining assets including patents, buildings (in Chicago and elsewh…

Those numbers don't include Motorola's increasing losses under Google. http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52605103ecad0479335...

The loss for the latest quarter will be announced tomorrow.

Re: Lenovo to acquire Motorola Mobility

#30
post #13

Damnit, I used plenty of moto G's for android development they were great mainly because you could actually buy unlike Nexus constant shortages. Lenovo like most Chinese corps not friendly to open source I imagine they will replace fastboot with some crippled proprietary junk, and be unfriendly to kernel mods

Really? Thinkpads are the most recommended laptops for running Linux. When I ordered mine, Lenovo even gave me a discount when I told them I didn't want Windows and wanted to run Linux.

They even have certified some of their products for Linux...

Not sure where you get your info.

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