Google mulls sale of Motorola’s cable division

Google is getting ready to sell off Motorola Mobility’s cable television assets later this year, according to a report by Light Reading Cable published today.

Google purchased Motorola for $12.5 billion nearly a year ago to obtain some intellectual property patents crucial to its business strategy for Android. However, Motorola’s patents accounted for just $5.5 billion of the total sale to Google — meaning it isn’t necessary for Google to hold on to all of Motorola’s other assets.

In an effort to recuperate some of the money from the Motorola sale, Google could sell off Motorola’s Home division, which includes cable modems, set tops, video processors, and some other related assets. Light Reading’s report indicates that Google has hired Barclays Capital to manage the sale, which could take place as early as November, with bidding beginning in October.

The real question about the sale is whether Google will chose to include some of the valuable IPs related to cable devices. Motorola hasn’t exactly let its cable division become stagnant in terms of innovation. The company debuted a new DreamGallery software to eliminate crappy TV user interfaces back in May. Still, the cable/home division’s IP could prove useful in the future for Google, which is growing its own smart TV platform, Google TV.

Light Reading’s report states that Google can expect to bring in about $2 billion from the sale of the home division, provided that some IP is included. Depending on the level of interest, the search giant could split up the sale of the home division into a few parts. Such a move could attract interest from Pace, Juniper Networks, and Ericsson AB, according to the report.

Motorola cable box photo via WingedMammal