"Google paid $750 million for a 5.94% stake in Lenovo Group on Jan. 30, according to a disclosure on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The purchase was made on the same day after Google announced that it had agreed to sell the Motorola brand to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, but will keep most of the handset maker’s patents.

The purchase of shares might be part of the deal, in which Lenovo agreed to pay a total of $2.91 billion, with $750 million in Lenovo ordinary shares, $660 million comprised of U.S. cash, and the remaining $1.5 billion in a three-year promissory note.

According to one of our sources, Google had wanted to sell Motorola for some time before striking the agreement with Lenovo because the handset brand has yet to live up to its purchase price, but had to hold off on selling the division for tax reasons. On the other hand, buying Motorola helps Lenovo build out its cell phone business. There were rumors in October that it had submitted a bid for BlackBerry, but was turned down."