Lenovo goes west, Google goes east

Ten years ago, Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's global PC business caused an uproar in the industry.

Ten years later, the same play is still being staged, the protagonist is still Lenovo, but the opponent is Google - on the last day of the Chinese New Year of the Snake, Lenovo Group announced that it will take over Motorola Mobility from Google Singer for $2.9 billion Smartphone business, and will fully take over Motorola Mobility's product planning.

It is also a share from international giants, and the transaction amount is much higher than the $1.25 billion that originally married IBM's global PC business. However, compared with the transaction ten years ago, few people call this acquisition a "snake swallow". Elephant" - Lenovo has proven its strength in ten years. However, people are still as wait-and-see and suspicious as they were ten years ago. On the day the acquisition was announced, Lenovo's shares fell 7.7% in the opening minute of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As for Google, the industry has cheered: Motorola Mobility has been losing money year after year since it was acquired by Google at a price of $12.5 billion in 2011. The sale helps Google to stop the bleeding quickly; Google has earned "fare" from Motorola Mobility; Google's original acquisition was intended to hold a large number of patents held by Motorola Mobility, and Google still retains most of the patents after the sale.

No matter how you look at it, it's a good deal for Google.

But behind this transaction lies the far-reaching strategic intent of both the buyer and the seller. Therefore, whether a loss or a gain is not determined by a momentary gain or loss.

Lenovo gambles on internationalization?

Motorola was many people's first mobile phone, and it held a generation's memory like "first love". This kind of market influence that cannot be underestimated, coupled with its good relationship with more than 50 operators and retailers around the world, will become a powerful weapon for Lenovo to expand the global market.

Wang Wei, former senior consultant of Roland Berger and CEO of Shenzhen Zhanluoda Consulting Co., Ltd., said: This acquisition will not only reflect Lenovo's rearrangement in the smoke-filled mobile Internet battlefield, but also help Lenovo to quickly demonstrate to Motorola. The good North American and Latin American markets are advancing, and there are more opportunities to expand into mature markets such as the United States and Europe, which it has coveted for a long time.

Since the annexation of IBM's global PC business, Lenovo has carried out fruitful integration work and has forged itself into the world's largest PC manufacturer. However, Wang Wei, who was the vice president of Hewitt Greater China and coached Microsoft's Greater China executives after Microsoft acquired Nokia's mobile phone division, believes that although Lenovo has been in the process of integrating IBM's global PC business, Lenovo has Accumulated considerable experience in international operation, but in the new round of "westward movement", there are still three unsafe factors lurking:

1. Among Motorola's 17,000 patents, Lenovo has only obtained 2,000, Although Google also grants the right to use other mobile phone patent technologies, Lenovo will have to be controlled by others in the use of mobile phone patents in the future; During the period, Motorola's team lost a large number of talents. Under the leadership of Lenovo, which has a very different cultural atmosphere, the integration of the team will be a serious problem;

Third, in the face of Samsung and Apple, which have strong market shares, Motorola's traditional business model and R&D capabilities, can they have a say in the new Internet context? Its successive losses will also bring more pressure to Lenovo.

Google's comeback?

Google CEO Larry Page once said: "After Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Google will focus on the optimization and innovation of the Android ecosystem." Some people in the industry interpreted it as: Let all mobile phones Manufacturers can rest assured that Google will not interfere in the mobile phone hardware business, which is intended to appease.

After the transaction is completed, Google will obtain 5.95% of Lenovo's shares, and some media said that Google will become Lenovo's second largest shareholder. Just as Lenovo wants to use the Motorola channel to enter the overseas market, Google also has a hidden scheming: Google has been regretful since it completely withdrew from the Chinese market in 2010. In the past few years, the media has continuously reported that Google wants to return to the Chinese market. After all, the global How can the largest Internet companies miss China, the world's largest Internet market? Experts believe that Google may be able to clear the relationship with China through its marriage with the government-backed Lenovo Group, and warm up to return to the Chinese market. There is also further speculation that Google may support Lenovo to counterbalance Samsung.

Made in China's position in the global ecosystem

"Lenovo has officially become the garbage collection station of the electronic communication industry! After recycling IBM's rotten PC business, it recycles Google's tired second-hand goods - MOTO! "After the announcement of the merger, some netizens have made such spicy comments.

And this also coincides with the long-standing question of many people, in the process of global industrial transfer, can we only accept those that others don't want? Is Made in China still only hovering at the low end?

In this regard, Wang Wei said: Today, the global industrial chain has become an ecological system, each with its own division of labor. At a certain stage and in a certain area, enterprises must find their own position in the entire globalization ecosystem. Interact with other companies to achieve win-win symbiosis. What Google is good at may be Lenovo's weakness, and what Lenovo is particularly good at may not work at Google.

From this perspective, Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is actually doing what it should do.

Wang Wei also pointed out that mobile phones are no longer just a simple manufacturing business, but have become an ecological terminal tool. Lenovo also not only uses Motorola as a manufacturing resource and a manufacturing brand, but intends to use it as a fulcrum to conduct more OTO business ecological business of Internet mobile phones.