Regulators OK Google's purchase of Motorola

Post by Aurora Johnson on 14th February 2012
 in 3G, E-commerce, Google

Google's planned buy-out of Motorola Mobility has been waved through by competition watchdogs in Europe and America.

But both have warned Google that they will be watching closely for any anti-competitive behaviour, "particularly the increasing strategic use of patents", said European Union competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

However, he added in a statement: "The acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google ... upon careful examination ... does not itself raise competition issues".

The announcement by America's Department of Justice that it too was accepting the deal came at the same time as it also approved the purchase by Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion of a catalogue of patents formerly owned by communications company Nortel.

According to David Meyer, writing on technology website ZDNet.co.uk, Google was keen to acquire Motorola largely because of its large stock of 17,000 accepted patents and a further 6,800 which are still being considered.

"Google may be a major mobile player now, since it entered the market with Android, but the Motorola deal gives it the sort of patent arsenal that a company gathers through being a longstanding mobile technology firm," Meyer added.