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Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

#21

Post by fhars »

monochromatic wrote: post #19
schraeds wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Google was bidding with numbers that were not even numbers,” one of the sources said. “It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi,” the source said, adding the bid was $3.14159 billion. “Either they were supremely confident or they were bored.” Google thought they were playi…

> bidding with numbers that were not even numbers What does this even mean?

That the numbers were not small multiples of large powers of ten.

Re: Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

#22

Post by schraeds »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #13
aikinai wrote: post #6

"Google didn't take IP seriously, bidding silly numbers (such as pi billion dollars) for the Nortel patents." Why does everyone keep rehashing this statement that was asinine the first time? How do the specific digits of their bids say anything about Google's stance towards IP? Pi billion is over 141 million more serious of a bid than the 3 billion that I guess would have made everyone more comfortable.

In hindsight, it's easy to imagine the Google executives bidding fancy numbers while rubbing their hands in glee saying "Haha, lets drive up the costs for Apple/MS and waste their cash while we're anyway going to complain to the DoJ like we did with the Novell patents and the deal to buy Motorola is almost closed. Haha. What next, Planck's constant or the Avogadro number?". Not that it actually happened, but certainl…

Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/15/google_motorola_the_...

Re: Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

#23

Post by 18pfsmt »

schraeds wrote: post #22
recoiledsnake wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In hindsight, it's easy to imagine the Google executives bidding fancy numbers while rubbing their hands in glee saying "Haha, lets drive up the costs for Apple/MS and waste their cash while we're anyway going to complain to the DoJ like we did with the Novell patents and the deal to buy Motorola is almost closed. Haha. What next, Planck's constant or the Avogadro number?". Not that it actually happened, but certainl…

Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/15/google_motorola_the_...

I've done so once before, but I've not seen in any other comments anywhere in these threads mentions of this notable insight, "Motorola Mobility held $5.5B in cash and deferred tax assets; this could put Google's (GOOG) real purchase price around $7B."[1]

[1]http://seekingalpha.com/article/278932-can-motorola-mobility...

Re: Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

#27

Post by tiles »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #11
Funnnny wrote: post #5

FTFA: "Android is a copycat platform. The APIs copy Java, and the UI copies Apple's iPhone." too true to read!

El Reg should've thrown in something about '... and the kernel from Linux' in there as well, to complete the troll.

Seriously.

Google culturally is very pro-Java, and decided to bring that to their new mobile platform, without the legacy baggage of J2ME. It was an engineering decision as much as it was against licensing Sun IP, maybe in light of how poorly J2ME ever did as a development platform.

Android was in development since 2005 and the major post-iPhone change that happened was a larger screen and virtual keyboard, which is what every modern phone has.

There are companies which have blazed trails and Google has not blazed many with its products; but they bring something equally as important to customers as innovation: competition and choice.

Re: Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

#28

Post by starwed »

palebluedot wrote: post #15

While the register portrays Google's moves as blundering, Dan Lyon's take is the exact opposite. I suspect it may be a while before we know which is true, although I want to lean towards Dan's view: http://realdanlyons.com/blog/2011/08/15/suck-on-it-applesoft...

I've never once read a register article and felt enlightened -- I've mentally compartmentalized them as a place to ignore.

Did I get the wrong impression, and they can in fact be a useful source of new & commentary?

Re: Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

#29

Post by Jun8 »

[deleted] wrote: post #25
jobu wrote: post #3

Hindsight is 20/20, but Google would have been a lot better off purchasing Sun and all of its patents than Motorola at a $5 billion premium.

[deleted]

"control over most US law-enforcement communication"

No, that's the other Motorola, i.e. Motorola Solutions.

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