I'll post what I said in another thread. Google have been very smart here. They didn't lose any money. Google actually netted $1.5B because of Motorola's cash reserves and tax breaks. They split the company up. They haven't sold all of Motorola to Lenovo. Google still own all the patents.
It was a very clever from Google because they've managed to exert control over two OEMs who were going rogue so to speak. In 2011, Motorola was threatening to sue other Android OEMs and then literally days later, Google announced that they were buying the company. That way they got all of Motorola's patents and solved the issue.
But they must have known that it would annoy Samsung. So they used Motorola as leverage to force Samsung's hand. Meaning, if Samsung agreed to cross license their patents and drop Touchwiz/Magazine UI in favour of a more stock experience, they would sell Motorola. This is exactly what happened and Google now have Samsung back under control.