Lenovo Group admitted that it has been disappointed so far with its acquisition of Motorola Mobility after announcing its full-year results for 2015.
In its Mobile Business Group (MGB), Lenovo says the integration of the Motorola assets caused Chinese shipments of mobile phones to decline 85% last year as the business shifted focus to open market and higher price bands, and its product transition in North America was not successful. In 2015 Lenovo shipped 66.1 million smartphones. Among these, markets outside of China saw 63% growth, hitting 51 million smartphones shipped. Motorola contributed just five million units to Lenovo’s total for the year, adding $1 billion in revenues for its MBG.
In 2014 Lenovo paid $2.91 billion for Motorola Mobility from Google in order to gain brand awareness. At that time Lenovo hoped the acquisition would strengthen its smartphone business in North America, Latin America and emerging markets worldwide. That hope has diminished after Lenovo announced in its yearly results the integration efforts “did not meet expectations.”
Lenovo says it has “learned a great deal since the close of the Motorola acquisition” and is applying what it has learned in order to right the ship. The company says its two new co-presidents focused on China and the rest of the world now have the correct priority. With China being among the top competitive markets in the world, Lenovo says it will concentrate on returning to growth in China by shifting from carriers to open market and leveraging its ZUK brand to rebuild its end-to-end competitiveness. Outside of China, Lenovo will continue to focus on emerging markets and will look to get its U.S. business back on track with new mobile device products.
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