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Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

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Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#261

Post by iam »

ck2 wrote: post #12

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?

Apple has enough money and more vested interest, they would be more likely to buy ARM than Google (or at least block Google's attempt at a buy out).

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#262

Post by Osiris »

nknight wrote: post #71
chollida1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wonder about this too. Google made those bizarre bids like $3.149b, almost like they weren't really into it. They could have just been feigning interest to drive up the price. They probably would have been happy to acquire the patents for a good price, but they clearly already had another (more important) acquisition in the pipeline.

The Motorola deal I think is a lot better because it's not just patents, it's a whole hardware company with hands in a lot of pies that Google is in, like cell phones and set-top boxes.

I think they'll get a much better return on their investment into Motorola than they would out of Nortel patents.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#263

Post by dennisgorelik »

nextparadigms wrote: post #138
kylec wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but it's not as though Microsoft bought Nokia. As crazy as that sounds, though, that would have been less crazy than Google's buying Motorola and how now they've suddenly become a mass-market hardware manufacturer. I really fear that things that Google has historically been bad at (support, etc) will come back to bite them hard.

After Google's move, I think Microsoft is much more likely to buy Nokia, too. But I think they'll wait to see how Nokia's first WP7 phones go.

Oh, that's why NOK is +13% today (while GOOG is -2%).

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#265

Post by rbanffy »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #226
rbanffy wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> trying to do the best for the company. By adopting the mobile OS nobody wants? By burying the one that was actually good (and whose kernel could power an Android device easily)?

>By adopting the mobile OS nobody wants You're dissing an OS that's not even out for a full year, and has MORE customer satisfaction than Android phones. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/wp7-ahead-of-android-and-... How is that something that nobody wants? >By burying the one that was actually good (and whose kernel could power an Android device easily) Did you even read the article I linked? Meego/Maemo was not re…

> and has MORE customer satisfaction than Android phones.

Something which is yet to translate into phones sold.

> Did you even read the article I linked?

Sure. There is only a handful of WP7 devices out there and they are all very high-end. Android phones cover a much broader spectrum - there are low-end Android phones - and the number of disappointed users is going to be much higher.

From TFA: "The data might be skewed because of the limited number of Windows Phone 7 users out there"

> Meego/Maemo was not ready on time.

And we can see the difference now that Nokia is selling devices running WP7.

> And what advantage will having a kernel that could power an Android device do?

It means it's mostly ready - all hardware is supported by the Linux kernel and the effort to make it run Android is almost nothing. The N9 could have launched with Android.

> Anyway what happened to WebOS?

It's a fine OS that lacks a significant developer ecosystem. There is a finite number of phone developers and now they are all very busy writing software for iOS and Android. Only a few developers have chosen to target WebOS, which has a smaller user base but very little competition.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#266

Post by nknight »

Osiris wrote: post #262
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.

I wonder about this too. Google made those bizarre bids like $3.149b, almost like they weren't really into it. They could have just been feigning interest to drive up the price. They probably would have been happy to acquire the patents for a good price, but they clearly already had another (more important) acquisition in the pipeline. The Motorola deal I think is a lot better because it's not just patents, it's a wh…

This is strange, since you basically agree with me, on the overall point, but I flatly do not understand people who think Google made "bizarre" bids. What is bizarre about a fundamentally engineering-focused company bidding pi? Why is it impossible to both take something seriously, and have a little fun?

It's like the "work shouldn't be fun" crowd -- why the heck not?

It wasn't the first time they did something like that. Their IPO was intended to raise e billion dollars. And why shouldn't it be?

Using fundamental mathematical constants may be unusual, but it's absolutely no more arbitrary than boring "round" numbers with a bunch of zeroes, and it's like a big geek flag waving in the wind.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#267

Post by recoiledsnake »

olalonde wrote: post #258
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My son is going to have to bid to get the contract to build the new city building, just like anybody else. He will be on equal footing." I won't believe it until I see a regular pattern of Moto not getting picked. That goes against too much human nature.

Well as far as I know, Google search doesn't tweak its algorithm to rank Google owned websites higher. This alone gives them some credibility...

Except, of course, things like Maps and Places and stock quotes etc. etc..

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#268

Post by seagaia »

iqster wrote: post #184
pietrofmaggi wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorola was split in two companies the past 4th of January. Motorola Mobility (MMI) and Motorola Solutions (MSI). The cellular infrastructure, part of MSI, was sold to Nokia/Siemes Networks. Motorola Solutions in mainly the Enterprise Mobility Business (Mobile Rugged Devices), WiFi systems, Tetra networks and a lot of other Government stuffs.

Thanks for the clarification. While MSI is considered the successor of the original Motorola, you are absolutely correct. I didn't realize that the cell infrastructure division(s) got sold (used to work on CDMA base-stations a decade a go). Makes me a bit sad. Do you know if they kept the employees?

My dad works for MSI - he kept his job, and a few people he knows at the mobile one kept theirs. I know layoffs are fairly common, although it's possible that is true for most other large companies.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#269

Post by ahlatimer »

BvS wrote: post #251
bryanlarsen wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those patents would have been issued in the 70s and long since expired. Even the first generation digital cell phone patents should be mostly expired. I'm not sure how involved Motorola was in the consortiums that developed the 2G/3G/4G standards, but my impression was that they were dominated by the chipset vendors (Qualcomm etc) and the telecom guys (Nortel etc). Of course, there were competing standards, and who p…

When exactly do those kind of patents expire?

20 years after filing date, IIRC.

Re: Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion

#270

Post by bryanlarsen »

antrix wrote: post #201
bryanlarsen wrote: post #80

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 t…

> The first litmus test will be the release of Honeycomb. You mean Ice Cream Sandwich? Google has made it clear that they won't be making a Honeycomb source drop. Instead, ICS would contain the 'converged' codebase from their phone (Gingerbread) and tablet (Honeycomb) trees.

Doh, you're right, I meant Ice Cream Sandwich. And I was wondering why I was being downvoted. My comment made no sense whatsoever with that typo.
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