Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#11

Post by wgren » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:49 AM UTC

On one hand, other Android based phone manufacturers are clearly going to face an uphill struggle if Google are going to release new versions of the OS on their own devices first.

On the other hand, it will hopefully provide some protection against being sued by Apple+Microsoft.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#12

Post by ck2 » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:49 AM UTC

Whoa. You know what would be even more interesting than this would be Google going after ARM and it's slew of licensing.

I wonder if this will make better or worse Motorola mobile phones. Will phones be pushed into retirement more early without upgrading their version of Android? Or will they have a longer software update cycle to keep them up to date in features?

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#13

Post by microtonal » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:51 AM UTC

latch wrote: post #4

63% premium...insanity. This is all about patents, isn't it? Instead of spending $4billion for patents, spend 3x as much, get a huge portfolio (I don't know how large, but it's supposedly quite large)..and a part of a company as well.

Patents are probably part of it. Another motivation may be that Google wants to avoid the Android ecosystem to spiral out of control. Android phones vary widely in quality, both with respect to hardware and software (thanks to vendor 'extensions'). Maybe they are hoping to produce an Android phone under tight control, to set a benchmark for the rest.

Also, Apple has shown that piles of cash can be made on good, though slightly expensive margins.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#14

Post by rokhayakebe » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:51 AM UTC

Assuming they spent the money for patents, is this the best way to resolve this issue? Would it not be easier to throw 1M a thousand time over and let developers create solutions around these patents and open source the projects?

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#15

Post by arkitaip » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:51 AM UTC

So basically Google has acquired Motorala because they want to strengthen Android and build up a better patent portfolio. Funny how they don't mention users, better mobile experiences, etc all that much. I'm surprised how frank Larry Page is in his blogpost http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android...

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#16

Post by alf » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:53 AM UTC

Official announcement from Google, written by Larry Page: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android...

He mentions patents specifically as one of the reasons for the acquisition.

"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."

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#17

Post by jonknee » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:53 AM UTC

bergie wrote: post #10

I wonder how other Android manufacturers will react to this. Maybe it'll boost MeeGo?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say no, MeeGo will not get a boost.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#18

Post by martingordon » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:54 AM UTC

So now Google has blessed a hardware manufacturer as the official Android manufacturer, and despite Google's insistence that Android is open, I don't think we've seen the Honeycomb source code yet. How long until Google no longer offers the Android source at all?

Samsung, HTC and the others are probably not very happy about this and will likely move them to start pushing their Windows Phone 7 handsets a bit harder than overly relying on Android.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#19

Post by iamben » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:54 AM UTC

From Reuters a few weeks back:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/21/us-motorola-idUKTRE...

"Billionaire investor Carl Icahn urged Motorola to shop around its patent portfolio to cash in on interest in wireless technology from companies like Google Inc and Apple Inc."

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#20

Post by chollida1 » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 11:55 AM UTC

latch wrote: post #4

63% premium...insanity. This is all about patents, isn't it? Instead of spending $4billion for patents, spend 3x as much, get a huge portfolio (I don't know how large, but it's supposedly quite large)..and a part of a company as well.

I'd say this was probably plan b, for if their previous patent purchase didn't happen.

The problem with Google, or any software company buying a hardware company is that generally the street values hardware at a lower multiple so this has the chance to pull down google's market cap.

We'll see how the market reacts to this during today's trading.