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Google Just Bought Motorola's Smartphone Business


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Google looks to 'supercharge' Android with Motorola Mobility

Google to acquire US mobile company's smartphone business to 'supercharge the Android ecosystem'

Google is to acquire Motorola Mobility, the US mobile company's smartphone business, in a $12.5bn (£7.6bn) cash deal.

The takeover will boost Google's increasing dominance in the nascent smartphone and tablet computer market. The $40 a share deal – which is Google's biggest acquisition to date – is a 63% premium on Motorola Mobility's closing price on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Larry Page, Google chief executive, said: "Motorola Mobility's total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers."

Sanjay Jha, chief executive of Motorola Mobility, added: "This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility's stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world.

"We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses."

The deal represents Google's biggest challenge yet to Apple, which has led the way in the smartphone and tablet markets with the iPhone and iPad.

Other manufacturers, including Samsung and HTC, will be free to release phones using Google's Android software. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

The takeover also pits Google, which has traditionally avoided involvement in hardware, against the manufacturing giant Nokia. The move comes just six months after the Finnish phone maker signed a strategic deal with Microsoft in an effort to rebuild its ailing fortunes.

Motorola was the first mobile maker to partner with Google and release phones based on its Android operating system.

Motorola spun off Mobility as a separate business in January this year. The manufacturing division primarily produces smartphones, such as the Motorola Droid and the Defy, but also makes tablet computers and digital set-top boxes.

Analysts have long predicted that half of the world's smartphones will be using Android software by the end of 2012, as manufacturers have rushed to adopt Google's operating system rather than develop their own.

The deal is subject to US regulatory approval, which could prove a larger hurdle than usual given that Google's Android division is already being probed by anti-trust investigators. The companies said they expect the takeover to be completed in late 2011 or early 2012.

Andy Rubin, senior vice president of mobile at Google, said: "We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem.

"However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices."

In a blogpost announcing the acquisition, Page said the deal would allow Google to "better protect" Android from "anti-competitive threats" over patents from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

The highly-competitive smartphone market has escalated into a bitterly-fought patents war between the major manufacturers and software giants. Microsoft and Apple are suing Motorola and Google over a string of alleged patent infringements relating to Android.

Monday's deal means that Google now owns Motorola Mobility's swathe of patents – thought to total about 17,000 – and strengthen its position in the market. However, those patents failed to deter the ongoing lawsuits from Microsoft and Apple.

Page said: "In 2008, Motorola bet big on Android as the sole operating system across all of its smartphone devices. It was a smart bet and we're thrilled at the success they've achieved so far. We believe that their mobile business is on an upward trajectory and poised for explosive growth."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/15/google-buys-motorola-mobility

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:/

Don't post if you don't know what your talking about brah

LOL behave they are wack, they offer nothing good and tend to be way behind the pack, the droid pro and milestone 2 were good though

Should have went for HTC if they wanted a decent HW.

So comes to the conclusion that this is more of a move to get more patents than anything

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:/

Don't post if you don't know what your talking about brah

LOL behave they are wack, they offer nothing good and tend to be way behind the pack, the droid pro and milestone 2 were good though

Should have went for HTC if they wanted a decent HW.

So comes to the conclusion that this is more of a move to get more patents than anything

About behave :lol:

Why would HTC allow themselves to be bought, they are balling right now. Record profits each year

/

The Droid was the most successful Android device in america in '09, not even just america

The Droid 3 has just been released, the best phone with a hardware keyboard to date

The Atrix, was the most powerful phone up until recently with a industry leading 1900mah battery

Then you got the Defy, the Droid X etc. Very popular phones

The XOOM Tablet was the first to come out with Android 3.0 Honeycomb if i remember correctly too

/

Motorola have been working very closely with Google for a while so coming to think of it this move isnt really that much of a surprise, you have a point regarding the patents though

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:/

Don't post if you don't know what your talking about brah

LOL behave they are wack, they offer nothing good and tend to be way behind the pack, the droid pro and milestone 2 were good though

Should have went for HTC if they wanted a decent HW.

So comes to the conclusion that this is more of a move to get more patents than anything

Again, don't post if you dont know what your talking about brah about behave :lol:

Why would HTC allow themselves to be bought, they are balling right now. Record profits each year

/

The Droid was the most successful Android device in america in '09, not even just america

The Droid 3 has just been released, the best phone with a hardware keyboard to date

The Atrix, was the most powerful phone up until recently with a industry leading 1900mah battery

Then you got the Defy, the Droid X etc. Very popular phones

The XOOM Tablet was the first to come out with Android 3.0 Honeycomb if i remember correctly too

/

Motorola have been working very closely with Google for a while so coming to think of it this move isnt really that much of a surprise, you have a point regarding the patents though

I said if there were about HW, they should have went for HTC as it far superior, no denying that

I did say that the droid and milestone were good

Ahh the Atrix, its too expensive and very cumbersome. Have you used 1 before, terrible, the battery was myth lol, took a f*ck*ng age to remove, overheated majorily after about 20 mins use. You could get a a decent samrtphone that could do the jobs much better with better functionality. No one in the enterprise is using this eiether.Using shitty motoblur on also :/

My argument is that I reckon this move is just for patents as opossed to taking on iPhone to produce the best phones, they are just aint on the levels of Sam and HTC IMO

1st things is getting rid of motoblur, slows down batt, eats up memory

Your not the only smartphone geek lol

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No doubt HTC's hardware is superior but again, why would HTC sell themselves to Google? Financially they are doing very well. where as Motorola's mobile division has just recovered financially. Financially it may not have even made sense. In Motorola they'e got themselves good hardware manufacturer and a bag of patents.

Motoblur will get ditched now for the stock Android

The move will allow Google to build smartphones directly in house, dictate the progression of Android hardware wise aswell as software

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Cesc - whats the deal between HTC and MS, i remember reading HTC pay MS cant find the mag now with the article now

Sutin about they pay MS a small % of every handset they sell.

I'm not sure if its to do with a patent agreement or what

edit

"That's right: according to a briefing note from Walter Pritchard, an analyst at Citi, Microsoft is getting $5 per Android handset sold by HTC following a patent settlement over intellectual property infringement in April 2010 relating to Android. And continuing lawsuits by Microsoft against other handset makers are reportedly seeking between $7.50 and $12.50 per device sold using Android as well."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/may/31/microsoft-htc-licensing-response

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:/

Don't post if you don't know what your talking about brah

LOL behave they are wack, they offer nothing good and tend to be way behind the pack, the droid pro and milestone 2 were good though

Should have went for HTC if they wanted a decent HW.

So comes to the conclusion that this is more of a move to get more patents than anything

Again, don't post if you dont know what your talking about brah about behave :lol:

Why would HTC allow themselves to be bought, they are balling right now. Record profits each year

/

The Droid was the most successful Android device in america in '09, not even just america

The Droid 3 has just been released, the best phone with a hardware keyboard to date

The Atrix, was the most powerful phone up until recently with a industry leading 1900mah battery

Then you got the Defy, the Droid X etc. Very popular phones

The XOOM Tablet was the first to come out with Android 3.0 Honeycomb if i remember correctly too

/

Motorola have been working very closely with Google for a while so coming to think of it this move isnt really that much of a surprise, you have a point regarding the patents though

I said if there were about HW, they should have went for HTC as it far superior, no denying that

I did say that the droid and milestone were good

Ahh the Atrix, its too expensive and very cumbersome. Have you used 1 before, terrible, the battery was myth lol, took a f*ck*ng age to remove, overheated majorily after about 20 mins use. You could get a a decent samrtphone that could do the jobs much better with better functionality. No one in the enterprise is using this eiether.Using shitty motoblur on also :/

My argument is that I reckon this move is just for patents as opossed to taking on iPhone to produce the best phones, they are just aint on the levels of Sam and HTC IMO

1st things is getting rid of motoblur, slows down batt, eats up memory

Your not the only smartphone geek lol

Its simply about taking on Apple.

and let everyone else eat, but so long as they use the android platform. :-)

Samsung

HTC

Sony Ericsson

and whoever and allow diversity of handset model types.

Manufacturers can make phone models in peace, without apple slinging law suits at them every minute.

Google take there cut, and mass inflitration of the mass market and profits and take on Apple where it hurts most. In the bank vault.

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  • 1 year later...

lol, Google are more sly than I thought

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/google-files-patent-lawsuit-against-apple/

Motorola files patent lawsuit against Apple, aims to block U.S imports of its products

Google's Motorola division claims Apple is infringing on seven of its patents and wants to block iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers from being imported to the U.S.

Since Google’s acquisition of Motorola back in February, the Droid expert has stayed quiet about its previous grievances with Apple. But now, according to Bloomberg, Google’s Motorola division has filed a new patent lawsuit against Apple (following Samsung’s lead), opening some old wounds leftover from Motorola and Apple’s long-standing legal disputes. The complaint, submitted to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), names features like location reminders, email notifications, along phone and video players as possible infringements.

The complaints target Apple features used extensively in its product line up and given Google’s desire to block U.S. imports of Apple products (Apple manufactures its product line in Asia), a win would strike a major blow. Google seems to have its sights set on Apple destruction. The original patent dispute between Motorola Mobility and Apple was eventually dismissed in court, but Google’s Motorola division isn’t willing to lay it to rest.

“We would like to settle these patent matters, but Apple’s unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers’ innovations,” wrote Motorola Mobility in an emailed statement.

The official document pertaining to this specific case won’t be available until Monday, so we will have to wait until the weekend’s over to learn the full details. The inevitable battle between Apple and Google may be a whole lot closer than we thought. And it’s nice to know we’ll have more legal battles to obsess over since Apple and Samsung’s recent disputes will soon reach a verdict.

FOSS Patent’s Florian Mueller notes that an ITC judge already made a preliminary judgement in the previous Motorola vs. Apple case, arguing that Apple did infringe on one of Motorola’s patent. The final ruling in the original case is expected to be released sometime next week. It’s also important to recognize, as Mueller points out, that if Motorola does achieve a ban on Apple products in the previous lawsuit, the iPad 4G and iPhone 4S would be exempt. Both use a Qualcomm chipset falling outside Motorola’s patent claims.

For mobile fans, Monday can’t come soon enough. Do you think Google and Motorola stand a chance against Apple?

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