Chinese giants Lenovo complete $2.9B takeover of Motorola

Motorola has been purchased by Lenovo - making it the world’s third biggest selling smartphone-maker. The Chinese firm takes control of the brand from Google. The deal is worth $2.91bn and allows Google to keep the patent portfolio while offloading the handset business. Lenovo is already the world’s best-selling PC maker thanks to a takeover of IBM’s personal computing arm nine years ago. Now it is pushing into the smartphone market. Motorola has recently invested in wearables with its Moto 360 smartwatch and announced a six-inch phone running the Android 5.0 operating system.

Motorola brings a strong presence in the U.S. and other mature markets, great carrier relationships, an iconic brand, a strong IP portfolio and an incredibly talented team. This is a winning combination.

Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo chairman and CEO

The firm is credited with inventing the mobile phone as we know it, but has struggled to keep pace with Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy line-up. Under the stewardship of Google, the number of Motorola devices were slimmed down and focus switched to cheap low-end phones. Motorola is based in Chicago and its main base will remain there despite the Lenovo purchase.

Business lenovo