Google
Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG) has hired Barclays Plc as its advisor in its quest to sell a
Motorola Mobility unit that sells set-top boxes and other equipment to cable
television providers, Bloomberg
reported on Thursday.
Motorola
Mobility’s Home Business unit might fetch about $2 billion and the sale is in
the very early stages, it reported citing a source. .
Google
is now shifting its focus towards high-end smartphones carrying its battle with
Apple right into the latter’s home turf and it plans to use Motorola Mobility
for this purpose.
Earlier
this month Google announced it would reduce Motorola staff by 4000 and close
about a third of its 90 facilities as part of a plan to restore the hardware
firm’s leadership in the mobile market.
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Google
completed the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility in May in its biggest
takeover, after it lost out on an auction of Nortel Networks Corp patents to a
group that included Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion.
Light
Reading Cable had reported on
Aug. 6 that Google was considering a sale of the Home Business unit. Motorola
tried to sell the unit in 2009 for more than $4 billion, people close to the
situation said at the time.
Many
of Motorola’s handsets run on Google’s Android operating software. Google-powered
devices accounted for 56 percent of global sales in the first three months of
the year, compared with 23 percent for Apple’s iPhone, according to Gartner
Inc.
Google
shares are down 0.61% to $683.63 in kid day session on Thursday.
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