Non-motoring > I thought Mobile Phones were cheap Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Falkirk Bairn Replies: 6
View Threaded 

New Thu 30 Jan 14 15:50 
 I thought Mobile Phones were cheap - Falkirk Bairn
Google paid $12bn for Motorola a wee while back.
Now sold to Lenovo (Chinese) for under $3bn

A fair loss in about 2 years.

True they still have 000s of Motorola patents but of what value?

tinyurl.com/o34fyq3
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 30 Jan 14 16:01 
 I thought Mobile Phones were cheap - rtj70
They probably made a profit if you look into it. Google bought Motorola Mobility for about $12.5bn. At the time Motorola Mobility had about $3bn in cash apparently, so it's now only cost they $9.5bn...

They then sold off the set top box division (Motorola Home)for $2.6bn.... so we have reduced the outlay to $6.9bn... Now they sell the mobile business for Lenovo for $2.9bn meaning they have 'lost' $4bn.... Or have they? Poor reporting by the Telegraph because their article even mentions the sale of Motorola Home for $2.6bn!

Ignoring the patents they were after in the first place, there were huge losses on the books at Motorola Mobility and these will have been offset against taxes for Google so they will have recouped some of the money that way. And if they only sold the assets of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo and kept the remains of it they can continue to offset profits against the losses for tax purposes.

In fact they may turn a profit on this.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 30 Jan 14 at 16:04
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 30 Jan 14 20:18 
 I thought Mobile Phones were cheap - Boxsterboy
And anyway, surely a loss will suit them as they can offset future profits against it and avoid paying corporation tax for even longer!
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Fri 31 Jan 14 12:16 
 I thought Mobile Phones were cheap - Mapmaker
>> there were huge losses on the books at Motorola Mobility and these will have been offset
>>against taxes for Google

Are you sure about this?
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Fri 31 Jan 14 12:23 
 I thought Mobile Phones were cheap - rtj70
So I've read - they'd been apparently carrying them forward for years. And with no prospect of making a profit Google will have taken some of the losses off the books. I'm not an accountant like you so don't know the correct terminology.

Even without fiddling with any losses (and Google as you will know employ some of the best accountants to avoid paying tax involving Ireland and Bermuda), any loss was not $12.9bn though which the article says was the case. There was the sale of Motorola Home, the cash pile and now the sale to Lenovo.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Fri 31 Jan 14 13:58 
 I thought Mobile Phones were cheap - Biggles
This article seems to be a good review of the sale.

www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/30/google_motorola_mobility_lenovo_sale/

I suspect that all the while Google saw a way to get their hands on the Motorola patents for next to nothing.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Fri 31 Jan 14 23:28 
 I thought Mobile Phones were cheap - Alastairw
In some ways this is similar to the way Nike bought Umbro, transferred the valuable England shirt deal to Nike, and then sold off the remains of Umbro.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
Latest Forum Posts