GOOGLE has sold its Motorola handset business to
Lenovo for $2.91bn, handing the Chinese technology giant a significant step up
in mission to become “the next Apple”.
The agreement comes less than two years after Google
bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn – a deal it struck primarily so that it
could get its hands on Motorola’s artillery of 17,000 patents and 7,500
patents.
Google wanted the patents in order to help mobile
manufacturers that use its Android operating system in the firm’s legal battles
against Apple.
Google said on Wednesday it has held on to the “vast
majority” of those patents, but will offload more than 2,000 of them to Lenovo
as part of their deal. The Chinese company, which is headquartered in Beijing,
will also buy the Motorola mobile brand, and the company’s portfolio of
smartphones such as the Moto X and the Moto G.
Google had already sold Motorola Home, a TV set-top
box business acquired as part of Motorola Mobility, for $2.6bn.
The deal will help Lenovo to expand its technology
business, particularly in Western markets, where chief executive and chairman
Yang Yuanqing has previously declared his ambition to surpass Apple.
The Chinese technology giant was relatively unknown
outside Asia, until 2005 when it bought IBM’s loss making “Thinkpad” PC
business. The acquisition has helped to turn Lenovo into the largest PC maker
in the world, surpassing American giants like HP and Dell.
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