Google has announced their plans to acquire Motorola. The two companies announced today that Google and Motorola Mobility Holdings have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
“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.”
Why would Google purchase Motorola? Larry Page gave some answers on the company blog today. In a nutshell, they needed the patents that Motorola holds to fight off Microsoft and Apple. According to Page:
Google plans to run Motorola as a separate business, and Android will remain open as a platform. We'll see.
“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.”
Why would Google purchase Motorola? Larry Page gave some answers on the company blog today. In a nutshell, they needed the patents that Motorola holds to fight off Microsoft and Apple. According to Page:
“The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to ‘protect competition and innovation in the open source software community’ and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. 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.”
Google plans to run Motorola as a separate business, and Android will remain open as a platform. We'll see.
