Making devices—however cool they may be—is at best a barely profitable undertaking for companies not named Apple. Last year Motorola's operating margins were negative.
"Compared to what Google does, the smartphone business has horrible economics," says Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu. "The reason to buy Motorola was to strengthen patents. Now they have that, the logical thing is to sell the rest."
There are already reports that Google is sizing up the cable set-top box business for sale. From Asia, rumors have swirled around the handset business, suggesting that Google has already offered it to China's Huawei at a high price.
Google to sell Motorola Mobility to Huawei?
Posted on Wednesday, April 11 2012 @ 16:35 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck