diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index e3373dbc..43aa2422 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -11,28 +11,10 @@ SUBDIRS = . src
 # Always include third_party directories in distributions.
 DIST_SUBDIRS = src conformance benchmarks third_party/googletest
 
-# Build gmock before we build protobuf tests.  We don't add gmock to SUBDIRS
-# because then "make check" would also build and run all of gmock's own tests,
-# which takes a lot of time and is generally not useful to us.  Also, we don't
-# want "make install" to recurse into gmock since we don't want to overwrite
-# the installed version of gmock if there is one.
 check-local:
-	@echo "Making lib/libgmock.a lib/libgmock_main.a in gmock"
-	@cd third_party/googletest/googletest && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) lib/libgtest.la lib/libgtest_main.la
-	@cd third_party/googletest/googlemock && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) lib/libgmock.la lib/libgmock_main.la
 
-# We would like to clean gmock when "make clean" is invoked.  But we have to
-# be careful because clean-local is also invoked during "make distclean", but
-# "make distclean" already recurses into gmock because it's listed among the
-# DIST_SUBDIRS.  distclean will delete gmock/Makefile, so if we then try to
-# cd to the directory again and "make clean" it will fail.  So, check that the
-# Makefile exists before recursing.
 clean-local:
-	@if test -e third_party/googletest/Makefile; then \
-	  echo "Making clean in googletest"; \
-	  cd third_party/googletest && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) clean; \
-	fi; \
-	if test -e conformance/Makefile; then \
+	@if test -e conformance/Makefile; then \
 	  echo "Making clean in conformance"; \
 	  cd conformance && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) clean; \
 	fi; \
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index cae76972..a22d7ad3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -216,12 +216,5 @@ AM_CONDITIONAL([OBJC_CONFORMANCE_TEST], [test $OBJC_CONFORMANCE_TEST = 1])
 
 AX_CXX_COMPILE_STDCXX([11], [noext], [mandatory])
 
-# HACK:  Make gmock's configure script pick up our copy of CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS,
-#   since the flags added by ACX_CHECK_SUNCC must be used when compiling gmock
-#   too.
-export CFLAGS
-export CXXFLAGS
-AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS([third_party/googletest])
-
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile src/Makefile benchmarks/Makefile conformance/Makefile protobuf.pc protobuf-lite.pc])
 AC_OUTPUT
diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index e6738149..ede1c555 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -703,19 +703,11 @@ COMMON_TEST_SOURCES =                                          \
   google/protobuf/testing/file.cc                              \
   google/protobuf/testing/file.h
 
-GOOGLETEST_BUILD_DIR=../third_party/googletest/googletest
-GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR=../third_party/googletest/googlemock
-GOOGLETEST_SRC_DIR=$(srcdir)/../third_party/googletest/googletest
-GOOGLEMOCK_SRC_DIR=$(srcdir)/../third_party/googletest/googlemock
 check_PROGRAMS = protoc protobuf-test protobuf-lazy-descriptor-test \
                  protobuf-lite-test test_plugin protobuf-lite-arena-test \
                  $(GZCHECKPROGRAMS)
 protobuf_test_LDADD = $(PTHREAD_LIBS) libprotobuf.la libprotoc.la \
-                      $(GOOGLETEST_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgtest.la     \
-                      $(GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgmock.la     \
-                      $(GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgmock_main.la
-protobuf_test_CPPFLAGS = -I$(GOOGLETEST_SRC_DIR)/include \
-                         -I$(GOOGLEMOCK_SRC_DIR)/include
+                      -lgtest -lgmock -lgmock_main
 # Disable optimization for tests unless the user explicitly asked for it,
 # since test_util.cc takes forever to compile with optimization (with GCC).
 # See configure.ac for more info.
@@ -804,12 +796,8 @@ $(am_protobuf_test_OBJECTS): unittest_proto_middleman
 # Run cpp_unittest again with PROTOBUF_TEST_NO_DESCRIPTORS defined.
 protobuf_lazy_descriptor_test_LDADD = $(PTHREAD_LIBS) libprotobuf.la \
                       libprotoc.la                                   \
-                      $(GOOGLETEST_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgtest.la        \
-                      $(GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgmock.la        \
-                      $(GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgmock_main.la
-protobuf_lazy_descriptor_test_CPPFLAGS = -I$(GOOGLEMOCK_SRC_DIR)/include \
-                                         -I$(GOOGLETEST_SRC_DIR)/include \
-                                         -DPROTOBUF_TEST_NO_DESCRIPTORS
+                      -lgtest -lgmock -lgmock_main
+protobuf_lazy_descriptor_test_CPPFLAGS = -DPROTOBUF_TEST_NO_DESCRIPTORS
 protobuf_lazy_descriptor_test_CXXFLAGS = $(NO_OPT_CXXFLAGS)
 protobuf_lazy_descriptor_test_SOURCES =                        \
   google/protobuf/compiler/cpp/cpp_unittest.cc                 \
@@ -830,11 +818,7 @@ COMMON_LITE_TEST_SOURCES =                                             \
 # full runtime and we want to make sure this test builds without full
 # runtime.
 protobuf_lite_test_LDADD = $(PTHREAD_LIBS) libprotobuf-lite.la     \
-                           $(GOOGLETEST_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgtest.la \
-                           $(GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgmock.la \
-                           $(GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgmock_main.la
-protobuf_lite_test_CPPFLAGS= -I$(GOOGLEMOCK_SRC_DIR)/include \
-                             -I$(GOOGLETEST_SRC_DIR)/include
+                           -lgtest -lgmock -lgmock_main
 protobuf_lite_test_CXXFLAGS = $(NO_OPT_CXXFLAGS)
 protobuf_lite_test_SOURCES =                                           \
   google/protobuf/lite_unittest.cc                                     \
@@ -846,11 +830,7 @@ $(am_protobuf_lite_test_OBJECTS): unittest_proto_middleman
 # gtest when building the test internally our memory sanitizer doesn't detect
 # memory leaks (don't know why).
 protobuf_lite_arena_test_LDADD = $(PTHREAD_LIBS) libprotobuf-lite.la \
-                      $(GOOGLETEST_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgtest.la        \
-                      $(GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgmock.la        \
-                      $(GOOGLEMOCK_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgmock_main.la
-protobuf_lite_arena_test_CPPFLAGS = -I$(GOOGLEMOCK_SRC_DIR)/include  \
-                                    -I$(GOOGLETEST_SRC_DIR)/include
+                      -lgtest -lgmock -lgmock_main
 protobuf_lite_arena_test_CXXFLAGS = $(NO_OPT_CXXFLAGS)
 protobuf_lite_arena_test_SOURCES =       \
   google/protobuf/lite_arena_unittest.cc \
@@ -860,8 +840,7 @@ $(am_protobuf_lite_arena_test_OBJECTS): unittest_proto_middleman
 
 # Test plugin binary.
 test_plugin_LDADD = $(PTHREAD_LIBS) libprotobuf.la libprotoc.la \
-                    $(GOOGLETEST_BUILD_DIR)/lib/libgtest.la
-test_plugin_CPPFLAGS = -I$(GOOGLETEST_SRC_DIR)/include
+                    -lgtest
 test_plugin_SOURCES =                                          \
   google/protobuf/compiler/mock_code_generator.cc              \
   google/protobuf/testing/file.cc                              \