Yesterday, Google announced it is buying Motorola Mobility. Motorola Mobility is the recent result of a split of former Motorola into the mobile division and Motorola communications earlier in the year. According to “Google agrees to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion” by Nathan Olivarez-Giles of LAtimes.com, the paid price mentioned is reported as “a premium of 63% over the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday”.
Larry Page, CEO of Google, Inc. is hoping the purchase will be approved and completed by the end of this year or early next year. Google would become a mobile manufacturer competing with Apple in both manufacturing and software. The article reported that Motorola Mobility would function as a separate company.
The most important aspect of this deal is patent ownership. Google will own Motorola’s patents and Page believes it will benefit competition:
“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies”.
Recently, patent/trademark disputes by Apple have resulted in Samsung getting their Galaxy Tab booted out of the EU, except the Netherlands. Google has a point that patent stealing accusations are too close to anti-competitive behavior. They will be able to defend their placement in the mobile game and stretch their power into manufacturing. Google will also compete with other manufacturers that use their Android platform. Despite plans to keep Motorola Mobility as a separate entity, Google will function as both business partner and competitor with many other companies.
No comments:
Post a Comment