It seems Google may have been forced into its blockbuster £7.7-billion buy-out of Motorola to stop Microsoft swallowing up the mobile phone company.
Gigaom is reporting that Microsoft was in talks to acquire Motorola's mobile phone division for some time and if the deal had gone ahead, it would have left Google in an even bigger patent hole than it is now.
It's claimed Microsoft wanted to swallow up Motorola for the mobile phone company's patent portfolio, which could have allowed it to "torpedo" Google's Android smartphone operating system.
Gigaom says it's those talks that brought Google to the negotiating table resulting in today's announcement.
Whatever the reasons for Google acquisition of Motorola, it means real opposition for Apple's dominance of the high-end smartphone market...especially with Nokia preparing to launch a raft of new devices running Microsoft's Windows Phone OS.
Motorola found a Google deal more digestible because Microsoft had no interest in running a hardware business and was essentially interested in Motorola’s vast collection of patents. Google moved aggressively, and at $40 a share, Google is now paying a 60 percent premium to Motorola’s recent stock price. The deal it struck gives it access to Motorola’s strong portfolio of 17,000 current patents and 7,500 patent applications across wireless standards and non-essential patents on wireless service delivery.The high-level talks between Google and Motorola started about five weeks ago. Google CEO Larry Page and Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha were talking directly, and only a handful of executives were brought into discussions. Our sources suggest that Android co-founder Andy Rubin was brought into the talks only very recently.
(Source: gigaom)
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