Well, we
didn't see that one coming. Google just announced today via its official blog
that itwould
be acquiring Motorola Mobility, an American company that produces
everything from the Wayans Family-esque lineup of Droid smartphones to the
10.1" Xoom tablet.
The
transaction price comes in at a relatively
modest (for Google) $12.5 billion, which at $40/share represents a 63
percent price premium over Motorola Mobility's closing price on Friday (MMI is up nearly 60 percent following the opening bell). Not
surprisingly, the deal was unanimously approved by both companies' boards.
“This
transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and
provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and
partners around the world," said Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility.
"We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the
Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even
more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile
devices and home businesses.”
“We expect
that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android
ecosystem," added Andy Rubin, Google's Mobile SVP. "However, our
vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android
as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to
work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute
innovative Android-powered devices.”
If there are
no legal roadblocks in Google's path, the deal will be completed by early 2012.
According to
Google CEO Larry Page, the move to purchase Motorola Mobility will not have an
affect on the openness of the Android operating system. "We will run
Motorola as a separate business," said Page. "Many hardware partners
have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work
with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences."
Page goes on
to say that we should expect to see great things on the hardware and software
side of things:
The
combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will
also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater
choice, and wonderful user experiences. I am confident that these great
experiences will create huge value for shareholders.
This purchase will also give Google access to a treasure
trove of patents in order to defend itself from competitors. According to The
Street, Motorola
has a war chest of over 17,000 patents.
Interestingly, Motorola Mobility's Sanjay Jha seemed quite receptive to using Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system just last week. We can now safely assume that those notions are completely dead.
Updated 8/15/2011 @ 3:30pm
Google has posted four quotes from other Android handset makers regarding the acquisition of Motorola Mobility. It seems quite odd how robotic and same-sounding all of the quotes are…
“We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem.” -- J.K. Shin, President, Samsung, Mobile Communications Division
“I welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.” -- Bert Nordberg, President & CEO, Sony Ericsson
“We welcome the news of today‘s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem.” -- Peter Chou, CEO, HTC Corp.
“We welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.” -- Jong-Seok Park, Ph.D, President & CEO, LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company
