Motorola Mobility

Motorola Mobility's 2012 acquisition by Google for $12.5 billion, then 2014 sale to Lenovo for $2.9 billion, demonstrated how quickly phone market value can evaporate. The company that invented the cell phone and created the RAZR couldn't sustain relevance after smartphones emerged. Google bought Motorola for patents, stripped them, then sold the hardware business. Motorola demonstrated that pioneering technology doesn't ensure market survival.