Google Acquires Motorola Mobility
by Kristian Vättö on August 15, 2011 7:48 AM ESTGoogle has just announced that they will acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (or more commonly known as just Motorola). Google will be paying $40 per share, which means a total of about $12.5 billion. That is 63% more than what was Motorola's closing price on Friday, August 12.
Motorola has been selling Android phones since the late 2009, so the Android platform is familiar for them. Google states that the goal of this acquisition is to enhance the Android platform as a whole in order to provide better user experience. Motorola will remain as an independent business, meaning that the Motorola brand is not going anywhere. Also, Android will remain open for other manufacturers.
It appears that this is Google's try to fight against Apple and iOS. One of Apple's biggest advantages has been the control of both software and hardware. Google has Nexus but the sales have been fairly low, which might indicate that the hardware has not been top notch. Motorola, on the other hand, has been in the hardware business for years, so maybe with Motorola's hardware skills, Google will be able to come up with a revolutionary smartphone.
Source: BusinessWire
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ImSpartacus - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
So Google gets some patents for its treasure chest and we get Motoblur-free phones? I can live with that; yes sir, I can.Just please keep the Pentile screens to a minimum, k?
Souka - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
ditto. Please, oh please, kill Moto-blurI've had two moto-phones that I rooted... just getting rid of the blur made the phone sooo much better. (faster, better battery life, more useable).
I currently have a company Droid2... stock ROM... ugh....
Romberry - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
...is that I wish I had been holding a ton of Motorola stock prior to this announcement. In addition, I wish Google all the luck in the world in their fight against Apple. The evil that people thought Microsoft was in the 90's has been realized in Apple in the 2010s, and anything that may hold Apple in check is something that I applaud.aegisofrime - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
After Google wins then it will be Google itself that is the next evil. If there's one constant it's that power corrupts.jmcb - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
I agree. I just checked the stock...the 15th was a very good day...lolZingam - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Wow! That's big! I wish I had some stocks too. It is very interesting development. I want to see now how would Microsoft and Apple sue Google?If only Google would buy Nokia now... that would be the biggest surprise ever.
ViRGE - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Well so much for Android being open. Within a generation all 3rd party phones will be reduced to 2nd class citizens. Being vertically integrated like this will definitely have some benefits, but it will also have its downsides. In the meantime it's becoming increasingly clear that Android is a failure as an open operating system.bplewis24 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Troll harder.ViRGE - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
That's not a troll, I'm serious. Google already enclosed Android some with 3.x. Now they're going to be competing with their hardware partners - why would they want to share the latest and greatest with them? You don't spend 12.5B on a hardware company in order to run it at a loss.Kristian Vättö - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Considering that Motorola has over 17,000 patents, this could as well be just a patent purchase, meaning that Android's state will remain the same and Google owns Motorola only on paper.Either way, this is definitely interesting and there are lots of things to be seen.