Google Inc. (GOOG)’s sale of Motorola Mobility holds a clear lesson for Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s acquisition of another smartphone maker, Nokia Oyj (NOK1V): Be a hardware or software company, not both.
Lenovo Group Ltd. (992)’s purchase of Motorola’s consumer-hardware business, which Google bought two years ago for $12.4 billion including patents, lets the search company refocus on software and exit competition with other manufacturers of smartphones based on its Android software.
Microsoft is on track to close its $7.4 billion acquisition of Nokia’s handset business this quarter, seeking to regain lost ground in a market where its 3.7 percent share is eclipsed by Android and Apple Inc.’s iPhone. Unless Microsoft can combine software and hardware as expertly as Apple has done with its products, the software maker will be better off without Nokia, according to Michael Cusumano, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.
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