Motorola Becomes a Lenovo Company

Lenovo announced it has finalized their $2.91 billion deal to purchase Motorola from Google, reports Bloomberg Businessweek, which will allow the company to boost its global sales amidst top rivals Samsung and Apple.

Lenovo's purchase of Motorola included a cash payment of $1.41 billion as well as Lenovo stock. Another $1.5 billion will be paid within a three-year period.

CEO Yang Yuanqing said during a phone interview that "Lenovo will be number three in the global smartphone market, but definitely we will not stop here. We want to become the leader in the smartphone and mobile devices area."

Rick Osterloh, president of Motorola, officially announced the news in his "Hello, Lenovo!" blog post:

"Today, Motorola Mobility becomes part of the Lenovo family of companies, and we are thrilled. In Lenovo we have a partner that shares our mission and that brings global scale, a diverse product portfolio and a track record of seizing strategic opportunities and making the most of them. Together we will go farther, faster."

Lenovo's purchase of Motorola does not mean the brand will fade into obscurity. Motorola will continue as a subsidiary based out of Chicago, as Osterloh explained:

"The iconic Motorola brand will continue, as will the Moto and DROID franchises that have propelled our growth over the past year. We will continue to focus on pure Android and fast upgrades, and remain committed to developing technology to solve real consumer problems."

Back in 2012, Google purchased Motorola for $12.5 billion, making it the company's biggest acquisition at the time as well as marking the moment of "Google's transition from a search-and-software company to a consumer gadgets maker," as CNN's David Goldman wrote in his article.

Motorola lost more than $1 billion in operating costs last year, but Yang says the Lenovo acquisition will allow a turnaround for their new company within four to six quarters, even selling 100 million devices the first year alone.

As Osterloh said in his article: "Motorola is a company that has long helped to define the course of the mobile telecommunications and mobile computing industries. With Lenovo backing us, we look forward to being able to reshape the industry for decades to come."