Google hiring firm to sell Motorola Mobility’s cable-box business, says Bloomberg

We first heard rumors that Google was interested in selling off Motorola Mobility’s set-top box business back in March, and the company may now be moving forward with those plans. Bloomberg reports that Google has hired banking and financial firm Barclays to help it shop the unit, which would include not just set-top boxes but all hardware the company currently sells to cable providers. Though things are in the very early stages, Google is reportedly hoping it can get as much as $2 billion with the sale. The move comes just weeks after Motorola Mobility laid off 20 percent of its workforce in a restructuring effort aimed at helping it achieve “sustainable profitability.”

When Google first announced it was buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, it seemed that the acquisition would give Mountain View a new way to aggressively push its Google TV platform (though Motorola Mobility’s $5.5 billion patent portfolio may have been the stronger draw). Either way, if a STB strategy was part of the initial calculus, it’s quite clear that’s not something Mountain View will be pursuing moving forward.