Google sells Motorola for $3BN - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 12:39:27 am
content: http://qz.com/172207/why-google-just-sold-motorola-to-lenovo-for-3-billion/So they have effectively swapped Motorola for Nest.Can someone please explain this?, because I cannot come up with a single rational logical explanation...

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 12:57:11 am
content: Quote12.5 - 2.91 = 9.59Let me guess, some fishy accounting trick ? Google is known really good on this kind of stuff, like the tax evasion in the past that saves the company for billions.

author: mtdoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 12:57:31 am
content: I think you nailed it during the recent Amp Hour episode- It's all a big money laundering/accounting scheme. Take a loss on the Motorola sale and amortize the Nest acquisition?I don't know the specifics - I'm no accountant but I'll bet there's a tax shelter/inflation of quarterly earnings angle to it somewhere - if not something more nefarious...

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 12:57:53 am
content: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2014/01/29/baig-lenovo-motorola/5039201/http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/01/29/google-selling-motorola-lenovo/5035673/

author: Zad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 01:11:19 am
content: I wonder if they will keep various chunks of Intellectual Property? That's what they seemed to be after when they bought Motorola, to protect their investment against Apple / Microsoft / Samsung / Whoever.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 01:14:34 am
content: I thought the reason they bought Motorola was for patents on various parts they intended to licence.Android manufacturers currently pay per-unit fees to Microsoft and other companies for some bullshit patents; who knows, Google could be doing the same for Windows Phones.Motorola's business was near dead when Google bought them.Someone, please help me understand how losing over $9bn on a transaction can save you more tax $9bn loss, loses?

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 01:19:33 am
content: Bingo. Patents.http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140129/14370626037/google-dumps-motorola-keeps-patents.shtmlQuoteWith these patents, Google was able to make a cross patent deal with Samsung :http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25908364Quote

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 01:22:54 am
content: A lot of money for "me first!" patents. Shows how bad first-to-file systems lead to this kind of patent hoarding.I wish it was a "first-to-file and to demonstrate practical product" but then half the patents would be gone.I wonder if all that money on litigation were spent on a Primer-type time machine...

author: Rory
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 01:39:29 am
content: Lenovo: First IBM personal computers, now Motorola. What's next? Intel? AMD?

author: gxti
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 03:54:38 am
content: Well IBM just sold their server division to Lenovo less than a week ago, so there you go!Regarding the Motorola sale, yep it's about the taxes:http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/12/22/did-motorola-mobility-only-cost-google-1-5-billion/They keep the patents, they get tax benefits, and don't forget they already sold off a different part of the Motorola business.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 05:01:32 am
content: Quote from: tom66 on January 30, 2014, 01:22:54 amEhm, until recently the US had first-to-invent. And under this doctrine they created what some perceive the worst patent system world-wide. They now moved to first-to-file-with-a-twist.Large organizations benefited most from first-to-invent, because they could afford to go through the legal process and hire experts to proof they did it first. And it provided a great incentive to hide an invention until someone else invested a lot in some product.QuoteThat would exclude small inventors even more, who can't afford to develop and build a product. It would exclude all research labs who only do research, not product development. It would exclude all universities. It would exclude all ground-breaking, forward-looking inventions for which one can't predict an application today.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 05:36:50 am
content: Since I have very fond memories of Motorola chips, and the company making them, while in the last few years I'm developing a serious case of Google-loathing, superficially this is great news. So Motorola isn't part of that evil octopus anymore, hurrah!I wish a company like Motorola could be just a chip maker, doing their best to make great products. But the economic situation has become so screwed up that isn't really possible any more. Too much corporate aggregation, too much patent portfolio consolidation, too much funny-money abstractions distorting markets (stock and physical), too many creepy umbrella holding companies and their bizarre ideas of how to manage subsidiaries. Danaher and Tektronix for instance.So pessimistically, I wonder what new bad news this means for Motorola?Oh well.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 05:51:18 am
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on January 30, 2014, 05:36:50 amMotorola isn't a chip maker for some time now. Motorola sold a large part of its semiconductor business to ON Semi in 1999. And in 2004 it spun of the remaining parts under the name Freescale.And remains of the Motorola of old times got again split into two companies in 2011. One part of that split, Motorola Mobility, is what is currently kicked around by Google.

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 06:39:53 am
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on January 30, 2014, 05:51:18 amHeh, I can see google execs playing soccer passing around a ball with the Motorola logo on it XD

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 11:14:38 am
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on January 30, 2014, 05:51:18 amOh. I didn't realize Motorola no longer makeanychips.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 12:23:40 pm
content: Cellphone handset market is a tough business to be. You need to release an extremely complex piece of hardware for close to nothing and with a ridiculously short product lifetime. I don't envy Lenovo.One thing that Motorola does well is radio/RF technology, which seems to be part of their core business now. However most of it is for the more profitable B2B market.One thing that will really bug me is that if we end up having Motorola-branded things in the retail market that will capitalize only the brand name (à la RCA, Westinghouse and others) but are utter pieces of crap.As an example, I use one of their wireless baby video monitors (designed by the original Motorola company) and can attest how well they do radio (the competition pales in terms of battery life, range and signal integrity). The baby monitor business is part of the "new" Lenovo/Motorola. I would hate to see the quality of this going downhill to increase sales.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2014, 01:35:57 pm
content: Lenovo is associated with make low end crap computers full of bloatware. Motorola once held great respect for its quality and innovation. It can only be downhill for Motorola.In the days of the real HP, it was about high quality trusted test equipment from a company founded by two remarkable engineers who were associated with vision to produce the finest test equipment in the world to help people like them - engineers. In my opinion, HP has lost its way and will disappear, as will Motorola and IBM in the not too distant future.On the smaller scale, Dick Smith once actually sold electronics components and they had at least some respect in electronics community. Now they have become a laughing stock. No self respecting electronics enthusiast would dare set foot in one of their stores, at least not without a disguise on. They don't even know what a resistor is, let alone sell any.The world has indeed changed and will continue to do so.

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2014, 04:13:29 am
content: My friends grandfather was an exec at Motorola in the late 50's early 60's in the semiconductor division. I believe he was the president of the division for a while. That is a whole world apart from todays company though.

author: dexters_lab
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 31, 2014, 03:08:37 pm
content: article on the register about it today, makes some interesting points on taxhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/30/google_motorola_mobility_lenovo_sale/

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2014, 05:13:35 pm
content: I don't envy Motorola's employees. Been once in a similar situation and HR distributed Who Moved My Cheese to all employees. Not fun.However this is how the free market works. Market leaders decay (DEC, HP, Motorola, Silicon Graphics, Sun, National Semi, etc) and new ones replace them (Apple, Facebook, Intel, Google, etc). Some manage to adapt (e.g. IBM) and some do not (e.g. Microsoft).Gone are the days of working entire ones' career at a single company and retiring with a gold watch and a pension. Things are moving faster these days and today's market leaders are not immuned, new challengers will rise and take control."What goes up must come downSpinnin' wheel got to go 'round"

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2014, 05:16:57 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on January 31, 2014, 05:13:35 pmI have heard that before. Is it a common thing in the US to distribute that book when bad things are about to happen?

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2014, 07:44:09 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on January 31, 2014, 05:16:57 pmI got it only once but according to this expert it is."Louis Uchitelle: Who Moved My Cheese? is a best-selling book that is often distributed to people who have been laid off. "http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2006/072006/interview-uchitelle.htmlA college friend of mine used to work for national semiconductors. He survived 11 layoffs and got caught in the next one. He said that they were calling people to HR and then circulating an email announcing the end of the round. Very bright guy, when we learned math in college he actually understood it. I referred him to a better job and he is happy ever after. In his specific case, layoff worked well for him, but the uncertainty can be tense.