Lenovo to buy Google's Motorola handset division • Hacker News Board

Re: Lenovo to buy Google's Motorola handset division

#261

Post by josephlord » Fri, Jan 31, 2014, 12:08 AM UTC

indrax wrote: post #255

josephlord wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't they have used their strongest applicable patents? They may have more similar ones and maybe one or two will hold up but do you really think if they had some powerful non-FRAND ones they wouldn't have used them on Apple or Mircrosoft by now?

We didn't use nukes in Vietnam. The value of the Motorola's patents may be in keeping Apple and Microsoft from using their strongest patents.

I don't understand what the point of that would be. Patents only have a limited life and the stronger stronger and broader they are the more they strengthen you negotiating position. Of course there is uncertainty so you don't going in which will survive sufficiently but you don't deliberately pick anything but the best.

I just don't see the scenario were you can't do a licensing deal with your opponent but you agree to use you second rank patents in the lawsuit.

Re: Lenovo to buy Google's Motorola handset division

#262

Post by vardhanw » Fri, Jan 31, 2014, 1:59 AM UTC

mediaman wrote: post #7

Huge announcement if true, and if this accounts for the entirety of the Motorola purchase that Google made. That means that in less than two years, Google shredded 85% of the $13bn paid for Motorola. At the time, the high price paid was excused for the patents, because the business itself did not generate nearly enough earnings to justify the price. Now, if it is true that the patents are part of the deal (the articl…

85% loss on the deal? - No http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/did-google-really-los...

.. considering 1. Motorola had cash on hand and tax credits worth $3B. 2. Google sold Motorola's STB business for $2.4B to Arris. 3. It valued the acquired Motorola patents at $5.5B.

Considering #3 is overvalued by 100%, it still comes to a loss of about $2b. But the gains would not be just monetary as Google now has a patent portfolio to be a stronger player in the smartphones business, and has had a say in the organization of the smartphones hardware segment which it can leverage.

Re: Lenovo to buy Google's Motorola handset division

#263

Post by pja » Fri, Jan 31, 2014, 1:07 PM UTC

absherwin wrote: post #68

mediaman wrote: post #7

Huge announcement if true, and if this accounts for the entirety of the Motorola purchase that Google made. That means that in less than two years, Google shredded 85% of the $13bn paid for Motorola. At the time, the high price paid was excused for the patents, because the business itself did not generate nearly enough earnings to justify the price. Now, if it is true that the patents are part of the deal (the articl…

They shredded closer to a sixth of the initial price less whatever IP benefit they received. Motorola had ~$3B in cash when acquired. Google previously sold their set-top box unit for $2.35B and realized about $1.7B in tax benefits from previous losses. However since acquiring it has taken $1.038B in losses, which is $0.67B post-tax. There will be another write down for the lost goodwill less the value of the remaini…

Tim Worstall believes they may have come out ahead on the deal overall: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/30/google_motorola_mobi...

Re: Lenovo to buy Google's Motorola handset division

#264

Post by eropple » Sat, Feb 01, 2014, 7:40 PM UTC

bruceboughton wrote: post #227

ben1040 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering they never actually exchanged money a single Q (the people who pre-ordered them wound up getting them free, as did I/O 2012 attendees), it doesn't seem to be so much of a failure as it was just market research on how to do it the next time. Notwithstanding the built-in amp, the Chromecast is a pretty narrow superset of the Q at least in terms of features.

Considering they never actually exchanged money a single Q Seems like quite a failure for a business.

Experiments don't always pan out and they avoided the PR hit of releasing a turd. If the Nexus Q was more than couch-cushion money I'd be surprised.

Re: Lenovo to buy Google's Motorola handset division

#265

Post by dba7dba » Mon, Feb 03, 2014, 8:47 PM UTC

evandena wrote: post #256

dba7dba wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Don't care how much money you have or are making annual, but losing 9.5 billion in TWO years doesn't look good. What's google thinking?

As noted a half dozen times throughout the comments, they didn't lose 9.5 billion, it's looking more like possibly 2 billion. But they also had a strong bargaining chip vs Samsung, and will likely reap benefits far exceeding their Moto stake.

My comment was way early in the thread so the dozens of comments saying they didn't lose 9.5 billion didn't exist yet when I posted...

Still, it's a strange/not-so-great move on google's part.

It's sad how a once mighty company is being sold around like a piece of house by some property flippers, and costing the flipper pretty 2 billion too...