Google announced the acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. New CEO Larry Page broke the news on the official Google blog, framing the deal as a way to “supercharge” Android and, critically, to strengthen Google’s patent portfolio against what Page described as anti-competitive attacks from Microsoft, Apple, and others.
From Page’s announcement:
This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. 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.
Motorola had been a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance in 2007 and had been an Android-exclusive smartphone maker since 2008. The deal gave Google ownership of Motorola’s extensive patent portfolio, which Page noted would help defend Android from ongoing legal challenges. He also highlighted Motorola’s home devices and video solutions business as an area of future collaboration.
The acquisition was one of the biggest moves in mobile industry history at the time, and the full impact was expected to take years to materialize.
