Lenovo recently announced the completion of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility after nine months of cross-border regulatory and other hurdles. After the announcement, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing did not conceal his excitement. "We have gotten our wish to make MOTO a part of Lenovo's family!" Yang said. With Motorola's global market share added, Lenovo has jumped to become the world's third-largest smartphone vendor.

After the acquisition, Lenovo will retain 3,500 Motorola employees, the Motorola brand, as well as the MOTO 360 and Nexus 6 devices. No less important are the 2,000 or so patents and its worldwide network of relationships with carriers and channels. That said, will Lenovo be able to integrate the Google-influenced culture of MOTO into the rest of the company? After the acquisition, will the next day go as intended?

Lenovo CEO Yang gave a very clear answer on how Motorola is expected to operate within Lenovo.

Motorola to remain distinct

Lenovo will reportedly form a wholly owned subsidiary to manage Motorola's operations: its headquarters will continue to be based in Chicago with a research and development center in Silicon Valley. Three thousand and five hundred employees from around the world, including 2,800 in the United States, will be a part of the subsidiary. They are mainly responsible for the design, planning, sales and support of Motorola's products.

As for the personnel composition and organizational structure, the new company will mainly include former Motorola employees, while some staff will join Lenovo. Lenovo's executive vice president and president of Mobile Business Group Liu Jun will chair Motorola Mobility’s management committee. Motorola senior executive Rick Osterloh continue to serve as president and COO of Motorola.

Although it will be an independent operating subsidiary, in order to achieve some synergy, Motorola and Lenovo will be united in procurement and supply chain management. "This can effectively lower the costs and increase the bargaining power in the supply chain, and enhance our competitiveness in the market. We expect to achieve a profit in 4-6 quarters - the next step will be to challenge the top two brands in the market, Samsung and Apple," said Liu Jun.

Remaining a high-end brand

According to Liu, the Lenovo Mobile Business Group was first established in 2011 when he outlined a three-step strategy: first, Lenovo needed to become a local market leader; second, to enter emerging markets; finally, to become a strong competitor on the global stage.

"We have completed the first two goals. Now that we have added Motorola, we will be able to better grow our brand development, R&D capabilities, and market coverage. The completed acquisition also means that Lenovo is fully engaged in the global market." Lenovo has been in the Chinese market for some time and has expanded to more than 40 countries and regions, mainly in emerging markets in Southeast Asia, Russia, Eastern Europe and India.

Lenovo and MOTO will separate branding to maintain relative independence. According to Yang, the current MOTO brand in North America and Latin America still has a strong brand representing high-end quality. MOTO’s future will continues to adhere to that high-end brand image while retaining the existing North and Latin American markets, and will be responsible for the EU, Japanese, and other mature markets.

Lenovo will have a strong influence in markets such as China, Asia and Eastern Europe. In these emerging markets, MOTO will be able to take advantage of Lenovo's existing channel network, entering the Eastern Europe and Asian markets, accelerating global expansion.

The two brands are highly complementary, both from a product or market perspective. "After the completion of the acquisition, our goal at first is to maximize the advantages of both brands and the two existing product lines,” said Liu.

Let MOTO return to China as soon as possible

As for Lenovo's home base of China, Yang and Liu stressed that the MOTO brand will return to China as soon as possible, though there is no clear timetable.

According to Liu, as originally envisaged the acquisition was to have been completed at the end of August, long before the actual completion. This meant that some of the products and programs originally envisioned could not be implemented on time. One of those plans is to return Motorola to China, which has also been temporarily shelved. According to Liu, "I will be together with Rick Osterloh, working closely in the next twelve weeks, hoping to deliver a clear answer as soon as possible." Apparently Mr. Liu is is very eager for MOTO to return to China.

The situation in China is also probably because the needs of the market has become more urgent. According to market research firm Canalys, Xiaomi has sold more handsets than Samsung and Lenovo in Q2, and it has taken the lead position in the Chinese market. Meanwhile, IDC said that in the global market, Xiaomi narrowly beat Lenovo, second only to Samsung and Apple as the third largest smartphone vendor. Faced with Xiaomi, Lenovo has an urgent need to expand sales of the Motorola brand to China.

Although it had exited the Chinese market some time ago, Motorola still has some influence in China. It is reported that 7 percent of all MOTO 360 handsets sold globally have been activated in China, which is interesting because it is not actually sold in China. This indicates that Motorola still has a considerable audience in China.

"We want Motorola to re-enter China when we are able to deliver a strong product portfolio, not a single product,” said CEO Yang.