One of the oldest companies in the mobile phone game now officially has a new home with the news today that Motorola has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s number one PC manufacturer, Lenovo. The Chinese PC powerhouse picked up Motorola from Google for the tidy sum of $2.91 billion made up of cash, Lenovo shares and a three year promissory note – basically the financial equivalent of an IOU.

With the acquisition, Lenovo becomes the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world beating out LG and the Chinese upstart Xioami who have been trading places recently but still trailing behind the behemoths that are Samsung and Apple.

Motorola will continue to be run out of its current offices in Chicago with its 3 500 employees around the world now reporting to a new overlord who will also take control of around 2 000 patents which came with the Motorola business. It will also have licensing rights to the treasure trove of patents and intellectual property that Google retained during the sale through a cross licensing agreement.

While Motorola does not have a significant role in the South African market, Lenovo most certainly do and when we spoke to the Liu Jun, the head honcho of mobile over at Lenovo’s HQ in China, he was of the opinion that the iconic cellphone brand would return to South African shores once the deal was all tied up.

Motorola’s smartphones are already available in South Africa through the Orange online store, but we would love to see them return to a mainstream audience through partnerships with the networks. Personally I’m dead keen on a Moto 360 smartwatch which I will be putting money down for the second Lenovo brings the company back to SA.

[Source – Lenovo]