Google $12 billion dollar proposed acquisition of Motorola has been approved by European Commission and the U.S. Department. This will make it the largest acquisition by Google so far.
Department of Justice said in a press release yesterday:
“The division concluded that the specific transactions at issue are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics,”
Google acquisition of Motorola has been closely scruitinized by the EU and US because of possible antitrust issues. There were serious concerns that Motorola could be given unfair advantage on Android mobile operating system that is developed by Google over other mobile device manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, and LG.
However, Google allayed those concerns by saying that it is in the company’s best interest to maintain the Android ecosystem and not give Motorola advantages over mobile device manufacturers .
The primary reason Google said it wants Motorola is to own its patents, which will help Google better defend Android from lawsuits. Motorola Mobility has some 17,000 patents, and it has another several thousand patents pending approval. That will make for one heck of a shield when other companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle try to attack Android and its manufacturing partners.
Do you think Google might be planning to be the next Apple with this acquisition? We can only but guess for now.
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