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Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

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Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#101

Post by nknight »

irons wrote: post #89
nknight wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When you show up willing to pay a 63% premium, it doesn't take six months.

Well, it's a 63% premium over Friday's close, but it's a nice even $40/share. Which one seems to be by design?

Notably, MMI peaked at $36.34 in January. I could see MMI's board thinking it was worth close to $40, given the crappy/insane state of the market.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#102

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

cincinnatus wrote: post #92
Jabbles wrote: post #29

Keeping Android open whilst treating their own phone manufacturing fairly will be a big challenge for Google. I hope they manage it. If done correctly the result should be a improvement in Android for all manufacturers, as the internal demands of Motorola will want to be heard, but cannot be prioritised. I am still puzzled as to how Skype cost $8billion. FYI Motorola Mobility had 24,500 patents when it was launched.…

If they have any sense they are already negotiating the sale of the physical business on to someone else. Keep the patent portfolio and recuop $6 billion of the initial outlay. Also, "open" in name only.

Who would be interested in buying a marginally profitable manufacturing business in a highly competitive market for any significant amount of money.

Besides, I think Google are doing this, in part, to produce what everyone has been asking for - an Android phone without the crap heaped on it, a phone that will allow people to judge Android for what it is rather than for what Samsung, HTC and others think it should be.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#103

Post by mhw »

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?

For those parts of the system that are GPL licensed, they (or the handset manufacturers who are distributing the compiled code) shouldn't be able to: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/most-android-vendors...

From the article, nice list of Android tablets showing those that comply with the GPL: http://www.codon.org.uk/~mjg59/android_tablets/ - a small proportion of the list are marked compliant, but most of the big names seem to be there.

Posted earlier, but not enough votes: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2885787

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#105

Post by RuadhanMc »

w1ntermute wrote: post #84
RuadhanMc wrote: post #61

It's fascinating to see the behemoths (Apple, Microsoft, Google) positioning themselves for the fight ahead. The importance of this fight cannot be understated. Microsoft won the last fight like this and they have dominated our desktops for 15 years (OK, maybe not all HN devotees) and pocketed gazillions. Apple are ahead right now (manufacturing handsets, selling software, etc), Google are second and Microsoft are la…

> Apple are ahead right now (manufacturing handsets, selling software, etc) Uhh, haven't more Android handsets been sold per day than iOS handsets for like the last 6 months?

Perhaps, but Apple make a ton more money per handset than Google does, so in my mind they are ahead. They also continue to lead design-wise. Manufacturers are still copying Apple products in this space.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#106

Post by robryan »

nknight wrote: post #91
ordinary wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Basically the profit margin on hardware is lower than on software, or at least that's the view of Wall Street ("the street"). Thus Google has spent a big chunk of cash on a business with an inherently lower profit potential than the rest of its business, so their stock value (which has only a tenuous relationship with the hard value of a company's assets) may decline. I doubt it's going to make that much difference,…

Although it removes some of the fears that Google were going to have patent problems (I would assume anyway, their must be some patent gold in the 24000 somewhere). So that may have been previously been factored into the stock price?

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#107

Post by w1ntermute »

RuadhanMc wrote: post #105
w1ntermute wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple are ahead right now (manufacturing handsets, selling software, etc) Uhh, haven't more Android handsets been sold per day than iOS handsets for like the last 6 months?

Perhaps, but Apple make a ton more money per handset than Google does, so in my mind they are ahead. They also continue to lead design-wise. Manufacturers are still copying Apple products in this space.

Google doesn't (directly) make any money off of any Android handset, so I'd say that's very difficult to assess without knowledge and analysis of the impact Android has had on AdSense revenue, not to mention this money is a continuous stream of revenue following the purchase of an Android phone as opposed to a one-time up-front fee.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#108

Post by toyg »

dotcoma wrote: post #74

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

Wikipedia says 19,000. I believe most of them will be safe, probably even in Sales, considering how the two companies hardly overlap at all.

(unless Larry is really thinking to grab the patents and then chuck everything else to some Taiwanese company)

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#109

Post by JulianMorrison »

Jabbles wrote: post #53
tpatke wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many patents were transferred to the new company. Motorola certainly has a lot and MSFT and Apple have been overpaying lately...

http://mediacenter.motorola.com/Press-Releases/Motorola-Mobi... http://www.unwiredview.com/2011/08/01/did-motorola-just-hint... ~24,500 (~17000 Granted and ~7000 Pending)

Looks to me like they bought patents with a phone hardware company thrown in.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#110

Post by dstein »

kylec wrote: post #30

Interestingly, this means the only manufacturer-neutral smartphone OS is now Windows Phone 7. iOS is on Apple, Android is on Motorola/Google, Blackberry on RIM, and webOS on HP/Palm. I wonder if this means we'll see an increase in WP7-based phones from HTC, Samsung, and LG...

Once Apple's vertical model started working, everyone was jealous.
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