Google to sell Motorola Mobility unit to Lenovo
Lenovo, the world's largest PC maker, will buy Motorola Mobility for $2.9 billion.
After just a year and a half, Google is cutting the cord on Motorola Mobility.
The search giant announced Wednesday that it will sell its Motorola Mobility unit to Chinese PC maker Lenovo for $2.9 billion, giving up on a business it purchased for $12.5 billion in May, 2012.
But Motorola has been a perpetual money-loser, which raised the ire of shareholders and Wall Street analysts.
Google said it will maintain ownership of the 'vast majority' of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio after the sale. When Google bought Motorola, the company said it planned to use those patents to ward off lawsuits from Apple and Microsoft that threaten Google's popular Android mobile operating system.
Lenovo will be able to license those patents from Google.
Google shares rose 2% in after-hours trading.
Google CEO Larry Page said the Motorola sale 'will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere.'
Lenovo chief Yang Yuanqing said the deal 'will immediately make Lenovo a strong global competitor in smartphones.' 
First Published: January 29, 2014: 5:31 PM ET
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