Lenovo buys Motorola unit from Google

My, my, my, do we live in interesting tech times. Reports are flying that Chinese hardware vendor Lenovo - they bought IBM's PC division a few years back, and earlier this month scooped up the server unit for good measure - is buying the Motorola handset business from Google for $3 billion U.S.

If this deal goes forward, Google will end up taking a pretty big bath, as it bought the division for $12.5 billion in 2011. That's a $9.5 billion shortfall, over and above the squillions of dollars the unit lost between then and now. I realize this is all pocket change for a company like Google, but it's worth noting given this is a company that almost never retreats so ingloriously. This would apparently be a first.

Why's Lenovo buying in? It wants to become the biggest mobile handset maker, and acquisition has become the company's preferred strategy in recent years. I wouldn't bet against them.

More to come. This is going to get even more fascinating as the details become known, and I'll have more on it for Yahoo! Canada Finance in the morning.

Related links:

• Lenovo nears $3 billion deal to buy Google's Motorola unit (Reuters)
• Google Seen Selling Its Mobility Unit to Lenovo for About $3 Billion (New York Times)
• Lenovo to buy Motorola business for $2 billion (China Daily)
• Confirmed: Google will sell Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion (ArsTechnica)
• Google sells Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion (TheVerge.com)
• Lenovo To Buy Motorola Mobility From Google For $2.91 Billion (TechCrunch)
• Google ends its Motorola misadventure (BusinessWeek)
• Google selling Motorola at multi-billion dollar loss (Wired)