14 DAY TRIAL // This week has been quite busy for Google and perhaps the most shocking piece of news was that the company has sold Motorola Mobility, for which it had paid $12.5 billion (€9.15 billion) three years ago.
The most important thing was that Google sold it for a lot less than that price, namely $2.91 billion (€2.13). However, the real acquisition price had actually been closer to $4 billion (by taking into account the cash pile, deferred tax assets and several other assets Google sold) and the patents Motorola had were valued to over $5.5 billion (€4.02 billion).
Given the fact that Google is keeping the patents to protect Android, the Internet giant isn’t really loosing much by selling Motorola.
On that note, the artists behind the webcomic The Joy of Tech had quite a bit of fun in their latest edition.
In front of a big sign marked “Google Yard Sale” an Android figure lines up a series of products, including Nest (which is not for sale yet) and Motorola. Lenovo comes along and asks about the story behind the “blue one”.
A little bit of negotiating later, Lenovo accepts to pay the price, Android graciously puts the product into a bag and the deal is done. Not too long after, Lenovo discovers that the bag is missing one essential item – the patents.
The comic is quite amusing, in true style for the Joy of Tech, but it does point to the big thing missing for Lenovo from the entire deal it signed with Google this week.
Of course, in reality, Lenovo probably paid the right price for Motorola and it got a licensing deal out of it, getting Google to agree for them to use all of Motorola’s patents while they remain in the possession of the Internet giant.