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Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

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Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#71

Post by nknight »

chollida1 wrote: post #20
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.

Was it plan B? Major purchases like this don't usually happen quickly. The Nortel and Novell stuff all went down in the last six months, and neither (separately or together) would have cost Google enough to make them back off an in-progress attempt to buy Motorola.

This could have been part of a Google patent blitz from the start.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#72

Post by [deleted] »

listic wrote: post #60
starwed wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> despite Google's insistence that Android is open, I don't think we've seen the Honeycomb source code yet The word "yet" is mildly disingenuous. No one is waiting for them to do that -- google said a while ago that it wouldn't happen, but that they would release the source to Ice Cream Sandwich.

How can Google get away with not publishing GPL-derivative code from the legal point of view?

[deleted]

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#73

Post by tlholaday »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #14

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?

You nées to pay the developer to create the workaround _and_ the litigator to prove in court that the workaround does not infringe.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#75

Post by drivingmenuts »

dotcoma wrote: post #74

ok, 24,500 patents. And - I know it's old-fashioned - how many employees?

Sad to say, I don't think employees count anymore. It's all about locking up the patents.

OTOH, X number of people now work for Google without having to take those quizzes.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#78

Post by Tichy »

arkitaip wrote: post #15

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...

I am not sure if Apple would ever be caught admitting that any of their products suck. They will always sell stuff in a more positive way (I mean they won't say "our product x sucked, this is what we do to make it better"). Why should Google do it differently.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#79

Post by ordinary »

chollida1 wrote: post #20
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.

> 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.

I don't think I understand what you're saying here. Could you elaborate a little?

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#80

Post by bryanlarsen »

What's the worst case scenario vis-a-vis Android openness and competitiveness?

Google can't take back the code it's already released other than the non-open source apps like Google Mail. But it can stop releasing new code. HTC et al are making too much money from Android, I doubt they'd stop investing in the platform, resulting in slow platform divergence a la Unix in the 80s and 90s.

3.2 hasn't been fully released to the open source community, but HTC and all the important players have it already, and I doubt that their license allows Google to yank it unilaterally.

Google does have to keep releasing code it based on GPL'd work, primarily the kernel, but that's a very small portion of the Android IP.

The first litmus test will be the release of Honeycomb.

Best case scenario? To me, that would involve Google moving towards a more open development model similar to what virtually all other successful open source projects employ.

They will be forced to make moves to placate HTC and all of their other partners, but whether those moves benefit us is the question.

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