Google is interested in selling a division of Motorola Mobility that sells set-top boxes and cable equipment to television providers, according to two anonymous sources who spoke with Bloomberg. Google has hired Barclays PLC to find buyers for the Motorola Mobility Home Business unit.
The sale is in very early stages, and the Home Business unit could possibly go for about $2 billion, according to one of Bloomberg"s anonymous sources. In 2009, before Google bought Motorola Mobility outright, Motorola tried to sell the Home Business unit for more than $4 billion.
Google is probably shifting the focus of recently acquired Motorola Mobility to the smartphone market in its ongoing competition with Apple"s iPhone. Motorola Mobility"s acquisition by Google was completed in May 2012 for $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility, in addition to making a range of Android smartphones, possesses a large library of more than 17,000 patents, and the acquisition was seen as a response to Google losing an auction of Nortel Networks Corp. patents to a group comprised of Apple, Microsoft, Research In Motion and others.
Earlier this month, Google announced that it would cut 4,000 Motorola Mobility employees and close a third of the independent company"s locations.
Source: Bloomberg