old3eyes:

KiwiNZ:

wasabi2k:

KiwiNZ: Lenovo have done OK with the IBM desktop/laptop division purchase, I really don't see why they would not do well with this.

Because they have no history in the mobile space - at all?

A Smartphone is a computer, I don't see an issue, Lenovo have the expertise 

Lenovo do produce smartphones called  Zenfone.  Fairly cheap  4 ~ 6 inch displays.

Zenfone

stevenz: Asus != Lenovo

http://shopap.lenovo.com/in/en/smartphones/

billgates: That's a $7 billion hit/loss for Google. Motorola patents are not worth $7 billion.

 

We know what the headline number that Google paid for Motorola Mobilitywas: that’s $12.5 billion. But it’s possible for us to dig a little deeper and see what the real net cost is as well. And that net cost might have been as low as $1.5 billion, which is a pretty good price for the stash of patents that we all think they were really after.

 

The first deduction we should make is to the set top business that they’ve justsold to Arris:

 

 

Google has sold Motorola Mobility’s set-top box business to Arris Group for $2.35bn in cash and stock, in a deal that will go through next year.

 

The internet giant is offloading Motorola Home and getting a 15.7 per cent or so stake in broadband technology firm Arris plus $2.05bn in cash at the same time, Moto announced.

 

 

OK, so that’s some money back. But it’s most certainly not brought that purchase price down to $1.5 billion. The other thing we need to look at is the accumulated tax losses at Motorola Mobility. These were worth nothing to Motorola, because it wasn’t making profits to offset against such losses. But as we know, Google makes a fortune so any tax losses come straight off their own tax bill and are thus valuable to the company:

 

 

“The tax benefits of the deal make what was a good deal into a great deal,” said Robert Willens, a New York accounting and tax expert. He estimated that through the acquisition, Google can expect to reap $700m a year in tax deductions from future profits each year through 2019. Google also will be able to immediately reduce its taxes by $1bn due to Motorola Mobility’s US net operating loss, and by a further $700m due to its foreign operating loss, he said.

 

 

Tot those tax losses up, add the income from Arris, subtract from the original headline price and it does indeed look like Google only paid a net price of $1.5 billion for Motorola Mobility.

 

Which is a pretty good deal when you come to calculate it all out.

 

NikT: 
With Moto being free of the shackles of Googliness, I wouldn't be surprised to see an SD slot in their next flagship - and a welcome return to software augmentation (Stock Android is not to my tastes, I was much more interested in Moto's recent Droid handsets, but again, no useful LTE bands). As long as Moto keep the rapid updates & range of colour choices, this could be a welcome union from the hardware side. I'm sure Samsung, HTC & friends are glad to see Google rid themselves of that hardware division.

old3eyes:

I too hope that the SD slot comes back but having been used to vanilla android over the past year I don't want to go back  bloatware that slows down the release of upgrades..

sidefx:

billgates: That's a $7 billion hit/loss for Google. Motorola patents are not worth $7 billion.

Forbes reckons it's a fair bit lower than that:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/12/22/did-motorola-mobility-only-cost-google-1-5-billion/

We know what the headline number that Google paid for Motorola Mobilitywas: that’s $12.5 billion. But it’s possible for us to dig a little deeper and see what the real net cost is as well. And that net cost might have been as low as $1.5 billion, which is a pretty good price for the stash of patents that we all think they were really after. The first deduction we should make is to the set top business that they’ve justsold to Arris:

 

Google has sold Motorola Mobility’s set-top box business to Arris Group for $2.35bn in cash and stock, in a deal that will go through next year. The internet giant is offloading Motorola Home and getting a 15.7 per cent or so stake in broadband technology firm Arris plus $2.05bn in cash at the same time, Moto announced.

 

OK, so that’s some money back. But it’s most certainly not brought that purchase price down to $1.5 billion. The other thing we need to look at is the accumulated tax losses at Motorola Mobility. These were worth nothing to Motorola, because it wasn’t making profits to offset against such losses. But as we know, Google makes a fortune so any tax losses come straight off their own tax bill and are thus valuable to the company:

 

“The tax benefits of the deal make what was a good deal into a great deal,” said Robert Willens, a New York accounting and tax expert. He estimated that through the acquisition, Google can expect to reap $700m a year in tax deductions from future profits each year through 2019. Google also will be able to immediately reduce its taxes by $1bn due to Motorola Mobility’s US net operating loss, and by a further $700m due to its foreign operating loss, he said.

 

Tot those tax losses up, add the income from Arris, subtract from the original headline price and it does indeed look like Google only paid a net price of $1.5 billion for Motorola Mobility. Which is a pretty good deal when you come to calculate it all out.