Regardless of the Google specifics, we should really have some sympathy for the Motorola employees. I doubt Lenovo will stomach quarterly losses the way Google did while they restructured. My guess is, we're going to see big layoffs.
My guess is, we're going to see big layoffs. Sometimes, a company sells a division or wholly owned business because it is either that or massive layoffs, and it's better for morale to write down a few billion dollars than to fire thousands of people. Even if you're working in one of the profitable businesses, a real chill goes around when the pink slip printing press starts hammering.
Motorola was probably going to go bankrupt before Google bought them. Like Apple when it was bleeding money in the 90s, it needed a way to gain time to reinvent itself. Google's purchase probably prevented mass layoffs in the short term, but has Motorola been given enough time to turn itself around? I dunno. We will see what happens shortly after Lenovo takes control.
Given Motorola's history in the technology industry, it's sad to see them go under. Reminds me of Silicon Graphics, the company that basically invented the majority of the fundamental facets of modern computer graphics, gone, while people gleefully play games on their mobile GPUs unaware of where we'd be without them.