History

On January 4, 2011, Motorola Inc. was split into two publicly traded companies; Motorola Solutions took on the company's enterprise-oriented business units, while the remaining consumer division was taken on by Motorola Mobility. Motorola Mobility originally consisted of the mobile devices business, which produced smartphones, mobile accessories including Bluetooth headphones, and the home business, which produced set-top boxes, end-to-end video solutions, cordless phones, and cable modems. Legally, the split was structured so that Motorola Inc. changed its name to Motorola Solutions and spun off Motorola Mobility as a new publicly traded company.

Under Google ownershipedit

On August 15, 2011, Google announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, pending regulatory approval. Critics viewed Google as being a white knight, since Motorola had recently had a fifth straight quarter of losses. Google planned to operate Motorola as an independent company. In a post on the company's blog, Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page revealed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was a strategic move to strengthen Google's patent portfolio. At the time, the company had 17,000 patents, with 7,500 patents pending. The expanded portfolio was to defend the viability of its Android operating system, which had been the subject of numerous patent infringement lawsuits between device vendors and other companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Oracle.

On November 17, 2011, Motorola announced that its shareholders voted in favor of the company's acquisition by Google for $12.5 billion. The deal received regulatory approval from the United States Department of Justice and the European Union on February 13, 2012. The deal received subsequent approval from Chinese authorities and was completed on May 22, 2012. Alongside the completion of the acquisition, Motorola Mobility's CEO Sanjay Jha was replaced by Dennis Woodside, a former Senior Vice President at Google.

On August 13, 2012, Google announced that it would cut 4,000 employees and close one third of the company's locations, mostly outside the US.

On December 19, 2012, it was announced that Arris Group would purchase Motorola Mobility's cable modem and set-top box business for $2.35 billion in a cash-and-stock transaction.

In May 2013, Motorola opened a factory in Fort Worth, Texas, with the intent to assemble customized smartphones in the US. At its peak, the factory employed 3,800 workers. On April 9, 2014, following the departure of Woodside, lead product developer Rick Osterloh was named the new president of Motorola.

Under Google ownership, Motorola's market share would be boosted by a focus on high-quality entry-level smartphones, aimed primarily at emerging markets; in the first quarter of 2014, Motorola sold 6.5 million phones—led by strong sales of its low-end Moto G, especially in markets such as India, and in the United Kingdom—where the company accounted for 6% of smartphone sales sold in the quarter, up from nearly zero. These goals were compounded further by the May 2014 introduction of the Moto E—a low-end device aimed at first-time smartphone owners in emerging markets. In May 2014, Motorola announced that it would close its Fort Worth factory by the end of the year, citing the high costs of domestic manufacturing in combination with the weak sales of the Moto X (which was customized and assembled at the plant) and the company's increased emphasis on low-end devices and emerging markets.

Under Lenovo ownershipedit

On January 29, 2014, Google announced it would, pending regulatory approval, sell Motorola Mobility to a Chinese technology firm Lenovo for US$2.91 billion in a cash-and-stock deal, seeing the sale of $750 million in Lenovo shares to Google. Google retained the Advanced Technologies & Projects unit (which was integrated into the main Android team), and all but 2000 of the company's patents. Lenovo had prominently disclosed its intent to enter the U.S. smartphone market, and had previously expressed interest in acquiring BlackBerry, but was reportedly blocked by the Canadian government due to national security concerns. The acquisition was completed on October 30, 2014. The company remained headquartered in Chicago, and continued to use the Motorola brand, but Liu Jun—president of Lenovo's mobile device business, became the company's chairman.

On January 26, 2015, owing to its new ownership, Motorola Mobility re-launched its product line in China with the local release of the second generation Moto X, and an upcoming release of the Moto G LTE and Moto X Pro (a re-branded Nexus 6) in time for Lunar New Year.

Lenovo maintained a "hands-off" approach in regards to Motorola's product development. Head designer Jim Wicks explained that "Google had very little influence and Lenovo has been the same." The company continued to engage in practices it adopted under Google, such as the use of nearly "stock" Android, undercutting competitors' pricing while offering superior hardware (as further encouraged by Lenovo), and placing a larger focus on direct-to-consumer selling of unlocked phones in the US market (as opposed to carrier subsidized versions). On July 28, 2015, Motorola unveiled three new devices, and its first under Lenovo ownership—the third-generation Moto G, Moto X Play, and Moto X Style—in three separate events.

Integration with Lenovoedit

In August 2015, Lenovo announced that it would merge its existing smartphone division, including design, development, and manufacturing, into the Motorola Mobility unit. The announcement came in addition to a cut of 3,200 jobs across the entire company. As a result of the change, Motorola Mobility will be responsible for the development and production of its own "Moto" product line, as well as Lenovo's own "Vibe" range.

In January 2016, Lenovo announced that the "Motorola" name would be further downplayed in public usage in favor of the "Moto" brand. Motorola Mobility later clarified that the "Motorola" brand will continue to be used in product packaging and through its brand licensees. The company said that "the Motorola legacy is near and dear to us as product designers, engineers and Motorola employees, and clearly it's important to many of you who have had long relationships with us. We plan to continue it under our parent company, Lenovo."

In response to claims by a Lenovo executive that only high-end devices would be produced under the "Moto" name, with low-end devices being amalgamated into Lenovo's existing "Vibe" brand, Motorola Mobility clarified its plans and explained that it would continue to release low-end products under the Moto brand, including the popular Moto G and Moto E lines. Motorola stated that there would be overlap between the Vibe and Moto lines in some price points and territories, but that both brands would have different "identities" and experiences. Moto devices would be positioned as "innovative" and "trendsetting" products, and Vibe would be a "mass-market challenger brand".

In November 2016, it was reported that Lenovo would be branding all its future smartphones under the brand "Moto by Lenovo". In March 2017, it was reported that Lenovo would continue to use the "Motorola" brand and logo, citing its recognition as a heritage cellphone brand. Furthermore, Motorola president Aymar de Lencquesaing stated that Lenovo planned to phase out its self-branded smartphones in favor of Motorola.

Under Lenovo, Motorola has faced criticism for having an increasingly poor commitment to maintaining Android software updates for its devices, exemplified by negative responses to a 2019 announcement that Android 9.0 "Pie" updates to the Moto Z2 Force in the United States would only be available to the Verizon Wireless model.