Google confirmed that they have sold Motorola to Lenovo. The Motorola brand was sold for $2.91 billion in a mixture of cash and stock. Lenovo would pay Google $660 million in cash and $750 million in stocks. The rest would be paid out over the next three years.
The sale came with a lot of questions for end-users. For instance, what would happen now to the Motorola brand? With the Moto X, Motorola has gained a lot of attention from buyers. The Moto G is also a strong contender in its niche. Now that Lenovo owns the Motorola brand, buyers could hesitate buying a Moto unless they see that Lenovo can offer a good product under the brand.
Lenovo has found success in the past after acquiring a known brand. ThinkPad was bought by Lenovo from IBM and the brand has been quite successful. What Lenovo did was to bank on the brand of ThinkPad instead of using ThinkPad technologies for Lenovo brand computers.
Motorola is a known brand in the United States, a market that Lenovo has been aching to be a major player in. This acquisition means they now have the vehicle to do just that. If they can offer a good follow-up to the Moto X, Lenovo could finally become a major player in the US market.