The storied name “Motorola,” a highly valued part of the company Lenovo paid $2.9 billion to acquire from Google, is going to disappear from Motorola smartphones and be replaced by Lenovo, according to the chief operating officer for the Motorola business unit.

“Goodbye, Moto(rola). Iconic brand name to be phased out,” reported Cnet from CES on Thursday in an exclusive story that media outlets around the world soon began chasing.

“‘Motorola gave wireless its start. But its name will soon disappear from products as a new brand label comes to life called ‘Moto by Lenovo,'” the headline reads.

Cnet’s Roger Cheng broke the story in an interview with Motorola Chief Operating Officer Rick Osterloh.

From the announcement of the Lenovo-Google deal involving Motorola Mobility was announced almost two years ago to the close in October 2014, Lenovo stressed over and over the value of the Motorola brand.

Noted The AP about the iconic history of the big M: “

“Motorola is widely credited as the first company to produce a mobile phone, and it was a leading brand a decade ago. But it struggled to keep up with newer smartphone makers and, after splitting into companies, saw its mobile phone business acquired by Google in 2012. Google then sold the business to Lenovo two years later.”

Yet just months ago, Lenovo made the decision to put its mobile phone operations under Osterloh – a clear indication of the value Lenovo leadership puts on the Motorola engineers and designers who have kept cranking out new models.

Rumors also have circulated that Lenovo’s own Vibe phones might be rebranded. Now apparently the Vibe name will be retained with higher-end phones getting Motorola titles.

The word at CES is that Lenovo phones will be called just that – Lenovo – with Motorola phone names such as Moto being kept.

Apparently the “M” logo also will be retained.

“We’ll slowly phase out Motorola and focus on Moto,” Osterloh said.

​A Motorola representative told The Associated Press that the Motorola Mobility name would be retained for the phone division.

“The Motorola name isn’t completely gone. It will live on from a corporate perspective as a division of the Chinese consumer-electronics giant,” Cnet said.

Last August, Lenovo cut 25 percent of the Motorola Mobility work force in Chicago where the division is based.