Internet giant Google has announced a deal to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn (£7.7bn).A joint statement said the boards of both companies had unanimously approved the deal, which should be completed by the end of this year, or early in 2012.Earlier this year, Motorola split into two separate companies.Mobility develops and manufactures mobile phones, while Motorola Solutions covers wider technologies for corporate customers and governments.To read this BBC News report in full, see:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14530543Also see:Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility: Arming Android
Shock. Bombshell. Incredible. Even seasoned observers of the technology industry could not hide their surprise when it was announced on Monday, August 15th, that Google, the online giant, would buy Motorola Mobility, a maker of handsets and other electronic devices, for a whopping $12.5 billion. The deal not only comes as a surprise, it will have a big impact on the mobile industry, too.For starters, the merger is very good news for the shareholders of Motorola Mobility, among them Carl Icahn, the activist investor. The offer — $40 a share in cash — is 63% above the closing price of Motorola Mobility’s shares on Friday. It is unlikely that shareholders would have got such a price on the open market any time soon. Although Motorola Mobility, which was only spun-off from Motorola in January, has staged something of a turnaround, it is still too small to compete with much bigger rivals such as Apple, Nokia and Samsung. Since March its shares had been trading below their issue price of $25.
www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/08/googles-purchase-motorola-mobilityGoogle looks to ‘supercharge’ Android with Motorola Mobility
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 the rise of Google’s Android software in the nascent smartphone 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.
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/15/google-buys-motorola-mobilityGoogle to Buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion
In a bid to strengthen its mobile business, Google announced on Monday that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $40 a share in cash, or $12.5 billion.The offer — by far Google’s largest ever for an acquisition — is 63 percent above the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday. Motorola manufactures phones that run on Google’s Android software.
dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/google-to-buy-motorola-mobility/Why Google Bought Motorola: Besides an impressive patent portfolio, Motorola will give Google greater control over the future of the mobile Web.
… However, as people increasingly access the Web via mobile devices, the acquisition could also help Google remain central to their Web experience in the years to come. As Apple has demonstrated with its wildly popular iPhone, this is far easier to achieve if a company can control the hardware, as well as the software, people carry in their pockets. Comments made by Google executives hint that Motorola could also play a role in shaping the future of the Web in other areas — for instance, in set-top boxes.Motorola is by far Google’s largest acquisition, and it takes the company into uncertain new territory. The deal is also likely to draw antitrust scrutiny because of the reach Google already has with Android, which runs on around half of all smart phones in the United States.
www.technologyreview.com/web/38320/Google-Motorola: It’s All About the Patents
Our first thought when Google announced a $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility: Holy cow. Google wants to be Apple.Instead of visualizing Google CEO Larry Page in a Steve Jobs black turtleneck, think of Google’s biggest ever deal as a shield against lawyers.Yes, Apple’s success with the iPod, iPhone and iPad prove the benefits of tightly meshing together easy-to-use hardware and software. Google has so far done the opposite with its Android software for phones: let anyone who wants to make the hardware license the Android software. Free will!
blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/08/15/google-motorola-its-all-about-the-patents/Google Turning Into a Mobile Phone Company? No, It Says
Back in 2004, Eric E. Schmidt, then Google’s chief executive, proclaimed, “We’re not going into the phone business, but we’re going to make sure Google is on those phones.”Less than a year later, however, Google did the opposite.As Steven Levy described in his book “In the Plex,” Google soon acquired Android, the mobile phone operating system, and began building a phone business that it has since developed into a juggernaut.
dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/google-turning-into-a-mobile-phone-company-no-it-says/