Google losses nearly $10 Billion dollars selling Motorola to Lenovo...

[chet everett]

Anyone that has read previous threads on Motorola ought to know there is nothing to be happy about. The failures of Moto's marketing and executives to put the kind of resources into maintaining their lead in a hyper competitive segment of consumer electronics began a long time ago. The efforts to "pare down" have destroyed what was once a highly valued center of design & manufacturing. The good jobs for skilled engineers and even technicians are gone. The once touted shift from Linertyville to a location nearer Chicago's Loop is a wash out.

The lessons for future promises from the aloof and untrust worthy leaders of google and other "new economy" firms are clear -- don't beleive the hype! The implications for what this means for not just the empty coffers of Chicago and the State of Illinois but even "regular" workers is clear -- don't beleive any short terms upticks, when the rubber meets the roads the guys from Silicon Valley would rather sell off stuff to the Chinese than build / rebuild anything in the ice crusted Midwest where the potholes will kill their Veyrons and MP4-12Cs...

[PerseusVeil]

^ Google was never going to restore Motorola Mobility to its former place of prominence; they only wanted the patents to protect themselves and other companies that have adopted the Android platform from companies like Apple, which have sued in the past.

This was reported when the sale of Motorola to Google originally happened, so it's not new news (Google wanting the patents, that is). Google was also never going to put its full weight behind Motorola and attempt to restore it to its former glory because that would have angered the other handset makers which have adopted the Android platform. Google had to walk a fine line if they wanted to keep the other adopters of their platform happy, as they could be seen as overly favoring their own newly purchased handset maker and risk damaging their relations with the other adopters. If Google wasn't interested in walking that line, then Motorola probably would have been the company which would have created Google's Nexus line of tablets and phones. Google instead asked other companies to make the devices, such as LG, which currently makes the Nexus 5 phone.

We'll have to wait and see what this means for Chicago, but Google's sale of Motorola is frankly not surprising.

As for Lenovo, they're best known in the American market for producing Windows laptops, and, from what I've read, it seems that they desperately want to expand into the international smartphone game outside of China. They might actually be willing to throw more weight behind Motorola than Google was, but we'll have to wait and see.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

I'll never understand why people live in places when they hope for their failure, or at least have an "ah ha!" attitude towards unfortunate things that happen. I think it's more someone's personality when it comes down to that.

I agree. While some may get satisfaction out of predicting something right, it's a bad thing when you predict that something bad is going to happen, it happens, and then you are happy about it. We're all a city, region, and a country here. Wishing for bad **** to happen is nothing short of rooting against your country.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by PerseusVeil

As for Lenovo, they're best known in the American market for producing Windows laptops, and, from what I've read, it seems that they desperately want to expand into the international smartphone game outside of China. They might actually be willing to throw more weight behind Motorola than Google was, but we'll have to wait and see.

They are also positioning themselves to be a huge company in this space that does many things such as an HP. Lenovo also bought the System X and BladeCenter divisions from IBM this month for $2.3 billion

[chet everett]

Anyone that can read can plainly see that I was ALWAYS hoping that things would not end up this way -- a former top tier showcase of technology. Had one of the region's biggest legacy firms be restored to the prominence it would had gave soe credibility to the "silicon prarie" hype that so often get over promoted. What this sale means instead is that even the legacy intellectual property is gutted out and the "brand" sold off to a foriegn company for "nameplate value" only.

Google has already seen major setbacks with the patent portfolio and probably will not seen any real value from that either -- Judge rules that Motorola's patents aren't worth the $4 billion a year it demanded from Microsoft | The Verge

The enthusiasm that some have for the movement of jobs into the city from surrounding areas seems more and more like a shell game. The deck chairs may get rearranged but when the hull cracks and the whole ship heads to the bottom the wretched layers of 'mis'management that should have been predicting / prevented this mess simply sneaks off to another opportunity while many more talented people drown...

My message on the movement of jobs around the regionh has been pretty consistent -- far too often these are merely plays on real estate or worse just a way to bully the state into giving grants or tax breaks to clout heavy employers. The net migration outward of jobs and people will ulitmately only be reversed if the harmful effects of uncontrolled taxes is stopped.

[marothisu]

I was talking with a friend who works for Motorola Mobility about this and he said he's glad to see Google go and is happier that Lenovo took it over. Then he said he can't say anymore.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I was talking with a friend who works for Motorola Mobility about this and he said he's glad to see Google go and is happier that Lenovo took it over. Then he said he can't say anymore.

I think when Lenovo bought IBM's commodity PC business they did keep some employees in the Carolina's but the business environment, not to mention the actual weather, down there is a lot less hostile than that of Illiniois...

I hope your pal does not need to relocate.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I think when Lenovo bought IBM's commodity PC business they did keep some employees in the Carolina's but the business environment, not to mention the actual weather, down there is a lot less hostile than that of Illiniois...

I hope your pal does not need to relocate.

He said part of the deal was that they wouldn't relocate, at least for now. That the move to the Merchandise Mart would stay in tact. He mentioned some people were not happy with some of the stuff Google was trying to pull but he couldn't clarify.

I don't know too many people who actually moved overseas after Lenovo did the IBM thing. I know a few, but most of them stayed put in NC (and some other states).

We'll see how it pans out, but it's interesting from an internal angle how it seems employees are actually happy that Google dropped them.