In 2011, which company bought Motorola Mobility?

In 2011, Google bought Motorola Mobility.

Google announced the $12.5 billion acquisition on August 15, 2011, during a period when Android manufacturers faced patent lawsuits from rivals including Apple and Microsoft. Motorola Mobility had been created earlier that year when Motorola, Inc. split into Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions. The Mobility business contained the consumer electronics and mobile-phone operations.

The deal was strategically important less for Google’s hardware ambitions than for Motorola Mobility’s intellectual-property portfolio. The company held about 17,000 patents and had thousands more pending. Google said those patents would help protect Android and its device partners from litigation. Motorola Mobility’s shareholders approved the transaction in November 2011, and the purchase closed in May 2012.

A common mix-up is confusing Google’s later ownership with Lenovo’s. Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for about $2.91 billion in 2014, while retaining most of the patents and the Advanced Technologies & Projects unit. Lenovo remains the parent associated with the Motorola smartphone brand.