is selling its Mobility unit to novo for $2.91 billion, according to an official blog post by the search mobile OS giant. 

The Mobility unit includes hsets patents associated with Motorola Mobility, which bought for $12.5 billion back in 2011. sold the Motorola Home division shortly after the initial acquisition, though the Motorola Moto X was one of our favorite phones last year, its sales numbers haven’t exactly shot through the roof.

novo, on the other h, is already the world’s top manufacturer has been ramping up its mobile efforts. In fact, it already sells more mobile devices than proper s, largely in Asian countries particularly in China.

According to , the move will:

enable to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere. As a side note, this does not signal a larger shift for our other hardware efforts. The dynamics maturity of the wearable home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry. ’re excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems.

Carolina Milanesi, a consumer trends analyst, posits that the sale to novo could have something to do with the Samsung patent deal, which makes the rumors of Samsung’s makeover of its gaudy Touchz UI that much more interesting.

Is it me or if Moto/novo rumors r true it must b connected 2 Samsung/ patent deal? relying on its main seller in short term

— carolina milanesi (@caro_milanesi) nuary 29, 2014

The recent acquisition of Nest Boston Dynamics would suggest that isn’t totally steering toward a software-only venture—just that it’s putting the physical Android phones into someone else’s hs. ’ve reached out to for a comment.