Lenovo wraps up purchase of Motorola phone unit

Lenovo Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing

Lenovo Group announced the completion of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google Inc. yesterday in a move aimed at making the Chinese computer maker a global smartphone brand.
The USD2.9 billion purchase adds to a flurry of acquisitions and initiatives aimed at transforming Beijing-based Lenovo, the world’s biggest maker of personal computers, into a major player in wireless computing.
Google bought Motorola Mobility in 2012 for $12.4 billion but appeared to decide quickly the purchase was a mistake. It sold its set-top operations to Arris Group Inc. for $2.35 billion and its smartphone assets, along with some 2,000 patents, to Lenovo.
Lenovo chairman Yang Yuanqing said when the purchase was announced in January that it would help transform Lenovo into a global competitor in smartphones.
Motorola’s smartphone models include the Moto X, Moto G, Moto E and the DROID series.
The unit’s headquarters are to remain in Chicago. Lenovo is taking on some 3,500 Motorola engineers, designers and other employees worldwide, including 2,800 in the United States.
Motorola’s sales in Asia, Latin America and the U.S. would have boosted Lenovo’s global ranking, Kiranjeet Kaur, a Singapore-based analyst with IDC, said yesterday.
“If the deal had closed by now, they would have been in the No. 3 spot,” Kaur said of Lenovo.
Lenovo was surpassed in the quarter by Xiaomi, which surged into third place after more than tripling shipments to 17.3 million units, taking 5.3 percent of the world market, International Data Corp. said. Both Lenovo and Xiaomi have headquarters in Beijing. AP/Bloomberg