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Google acquiring Motorola.

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Another aspect:

Motorola Mobility also is a top manufacturer of DVR, settop box, cable modem and other broadband equipment.

Thus Google has acquired many handset related patents, a handset manufacturer, and a major interactive TV and cable equipment producer.
 
maflynn said:
Who says that Google is going to kill of Motorola branded handsets.

Common sense dictates that if you're spending 12 billion dollars for a phone manufacturer odds are fairly high the buyer will continue to make phones 🙄
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Not necessarily. Have you ever played Monopoly where an opponent held Park Place and you land on an unowned Boardwalk? What do you do -- one option is to buy it, mortgage it, take your $200, and let it lie fallow the rest of the game since it's rarely landed on just so your opponent can't start building homes/hotels. Another is to buy it leave it active, get $50 every once in a while.

Just saying there are options, and one of those is to keep the patents and shutter the phone biz. I don't think there is a single common sense answer as you suggest. Could logically go either way, though keeping the biz ongoing is the harder of the two. Either way they keep the patents out of Apple's inventory.
 
rdowns said:
Bullpucky. Read the press releases, they sound like one guy wrote them all.
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definitely, plus in public they want to show off that they're one big happy family. They are not happy that google is encroaching in on their turf.
 
maflynn said:
They are not happy that google is encroaching in on their turf.
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Where is the evidence of this? Would you all be happy if an Android oem ran out with a reageface screaming:
ffffuuuuuuuuuu.jpg


It might be a smokescreen but anything but the official word is speculation.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Not necessarily. Have you ever played Monopoly where an opponent held Park Place and you land on an unowned Boardwalk? What do you do -- one option is to buy it, mortgage it, take your $200, and let it lie fallow the rest of the game since it's rarely landed on just so your opponent can't start building homes/hotels. Another is to buy it leave it active, get $50 every once in a while.

Just saying there are options, and one of those is to keep the patents and shutter the phone biz. I don't think there is a single common sense answer as you suggest. Could logically go either way, though keeping the biz ongoing is the harder of the two. Either way they keep the patents out of Apple's inventory.
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True, but we're not talking about 100 bucks but 12 billion dollars. Even for google that's a significant amount of money and it will cost them $$ to shutter the manufacturing plants as well if they only intended to spend 12 billion dollars on IP
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Not necessarily. Have you ever played Monopoly where an opponent held Park Place and you land on an unowned Boardwalk? What do you do -- one option is to buy it, mortgage it, take your $200, and let it lie fallow the rest of the game since it's rarely landed on just so your opponent can't start building homes/hotels. Another is to buy it leave it active, get $50 every once in a while.

Just saying there are options, and one of those is to keep the patents and shutter the phone biz. I don't think there is a single common sense answer as you suggest. Could logically go either way, though keeping the biz ongoing is the harder of the two. Either way they keep the patents out of Apple's inventory.
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Those aren't the real options in Monopoly! 😀
http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue10/CampaignRealMonopoly1.html
 
Wouldn't agree. Apple spent 2.6B on generic patents. Google spent 12B on mobile handset and tablet patents some dating years. Remember Moto have been in this game for a long time. I suspect Google's patent arsenal now dwarfs Apples especially in Apples Sweetspot (smarphone and tablet).

I'd say this gives Google and its partners cause for some easy sleep.

BaldiMac said:
This acquisition makes Apple's purchase in the Nortel patents seem to be a pretty good investment. By spending $2.6 billion, they got their main competitor to spend $12 billion on a company that has been losing money for years, is outside their core competence, and will undermine (to some extent) their relationship with other Android licensees.
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I'd say this is a great move. Motorola has a whole stash of patents.

Plus, I'm sure that Google has something up their sleeve for the Nexus line. So far, HTC made the first, Samsung made the second, and there's a toss-up between Samsung and LG making the third. Motorola's in line for next year (Q4 2012), and this will just seal the deal.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
My problem with this deal is that Google has zero experience in hardware manufacturing. Let's face it, even Android's front end s/w isn't all that inviting, even as they copied iOS's look and feel plus a few more hard buttons. And MOTO phones for the most part have been a disaster. It's the reason why MOTO spun the division off years ago. So I'm unsure how this deal creates any synergy since it's not exactly a great handset maker meets great s/w maker story. It seems more like mixing bleach w/ ammonia.
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Google says that it will run Motorola as a separate business -- though obviously there will unprecedented collaboration between the two and I'm sure they will leverage the experience of the Motorola team. One of the big problems with Android is the separation between software and hardware. Well, maybe not so much now.

It's a move that isn't without risk--but its a smart one. Motorola products will now likely get OS updates soon after those updates are released. There is nothing to stop HTC or Samsung from also getting immediate updates, but the manufacturers themselves drag their feet. If a Samsung phone never gets an update its the fault of Samsung, not Google.

In the near future, quick OS updates on Motorola products will be a selling point and will put pressure on other manufacturers to also issue quick updates.
 
maflynn said:
True, but we're not talking about 100 bucks but 12 billion dollars. Even for google that's a significant amount of money and it will cost them $$ to shutter the manufacturing plants as well if they only intended to spend 12 billion dollars on IP
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The principle is the same whether it's Monopoly money or real money. Also MMI is not a money maker. It's been posting quarterly losses for some time. So whether Google keeps or shutters it it's going to cost Google money.


barkomatic said:
It's a move that isn't without risk--but its a smart one...

In the near future, quick OS updates on Motorola products will be a selling point and will put pressure on other manufacturers to also issue quick updates.
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Remains to be seen if its a smart one. As said Google has no hardware manufacturing or design experience and current Moto phones are less than desirable for the most part. People don't' buy phones for quick updates but rather because they are good devices. If it were true that quick updates sold phones then the iPhone wouldn't be a top seller as major updates come but once a year or longer.
 
barkomatic said:
In the near future, quick OS updates on Motorola products will be a selling point and will put pressure on other manufacturers to also issue quick updates.
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Joe Average doesn't buy phones because they get quick updates. The average user barely knows about OS updates. Very often the only time the OS gets updated is when they get a new phone (or are notified to install it and given the option to do so automatically.) Thy don't go looking for it and doing research on it ahead of time.

The only real reason Android phones sold is universal licensing. Google got to it before anyone else did and flooded the market.

If they want to play Apple's game and succeed, they need to redefine their business completely.
 
kevinof said:
Wouldn't agree. Apple spent 2.6B on generic patents. Google spent 12B on mobile handset and tablet patents some dating years. Remember Moto have been in this game for a long time. I suspect Google's patent arsenal now dwarfs Apples especially in Apples Sweetspot (smarphone and tablet).

I'd say this gives Google and its partners cause for some easy sleep.
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What makes you think these are all mobile handset and tablet patents? Motorola Mobility is into set top boxes, phone accessories, cable modems etc.
 
kdarling said:
Another aspect:

Motorola Mobility also is a top manufacturer of DVR, settop box, cable modem and other broadband equipment.

Thus Google has acquired many handset related patents, a handset manufacturer, and a major interactive TV and cable equipment producer.
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That is actually Motorola Solutions.
 
Well that would be an interest turn if Google decides to incorporate the modem and set top box divisions.
 
Google just paid a premium price for Motorola. 15 billion dollars? You Crazy?

This company was struggling so bad. They overpaid at least 50-60%. This kind of behavior upsets shareholders unless google can make Motorola to produce very compelling products.


Google will now compete with Samsung and HTC. Motorola blur was not loved, but pure android experience on Motorola device will be. Samsung and LG will not be happy with this deal in the long run.
 
Couldn't they have at least tried to negotiate for better pricing? This is a lot of money they are paying up.
 
KingCrimson said:
Desperation move my GOOG. MSFT acquisition of Skype is brilliant by comparison.
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Hardly a desperation move. A smart one indeed, Motorola have a hell of a lot of patents that Google now have the pleasure of using. I'm sure Apple would have grabbed the chance if they have had it.

Hardly a decent comparison either.

In fact, your post is just entirely wrong. If either of them are desperation moves, Apple buying Nortel is also a desperation move.
 
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