“Historic milestone”
Motorola will now become a wholly owned subsidiary, with its own headquarters in Chicago. The company will also get to keep 2,000 of its own patents, while getting a permanent license to use 21,000 Google-owned patents.
“Today we achieved a historic milestone for Lenovo and for Motorola — and together we are ready to compete, grow and win in the global smartphone market. By building a strong number three and a credible challenger to the top two in smartphones, we will give the market something it has needed: choice, competition and a new spark of innovation”, CEO Yang Yuanqing said.
Lenovo will acquire Motorola cheaply as it will “only” pay 2.91 billion dollar (2.3 billion euro), well below the 12.5 billion dollars (10 billion euro) Google paid for the American company two years ago.
