“Arris Group Inc. and Pace Plc have made the most compelling bids for Google Inc.’s Motorola Home Business, which sells set-top boxes and equipment to cable- television providers, a person familiar with the situation said,” Serena Saitto and Brian Womack report for Bloomberg.
“Google, which has been trying to sell the unit, received multiple offers on Dec. 7, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the process is private,” Saitto and Womack report. “A deal has a 50-50 chance of being announced by year-end or postponed because of a complicated financing structure that involves Google retaining some equity and the unit’s patents, the person said. Pace said it made a bid and that it’s halting the trading of its stock.”
Saitto and Womack report, “Google said in August that it would cut 4,000 Motorola workers and close about a third of its 90 facilities as part of a plan to restore the hardware firm’s leadership in the mobile market.”
Read more in the full article here.
Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider, “The Google TV platform was unveiled in 2010 with high hopes from the company.”
“One of the first Google TV devices was the Logitech Revnue, which cost that company $100 million in operating profits,” Oliver reports. “Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca said last year that his company was abandoning the product as it ‘executed a full-scale launch with a beta product, and it cost us dearly.'”
Oliver reports, “While Google’s interest in the television market is showing signs of potentially winding down with the impending sale of Motorola’s set-top-box division, rumors of a growing presence from Apple continue to heat up. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in interviews last week that the television is an area of ‘intense interest’ for his company.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iCal says:
“By the summer of 2012, because the product cycles are long, the majority of the televisions that you see in the television stores here will have Google TV embedded in it.” – Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, December 8, 2011
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Mike D.” and “Dan” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Google postpones Nexus Q indefinitely – July 31, 2012
Google’s Schmidt sees ‘majority’ of TVs with Google TV by summer – December 8, 2011
Interesting.
Why did google buy mythTV a year ago? Amazing piece of software and everyone figured the purchase was done to bring a new UI to moto set top boxes.
Maybe not heh
How’s that Gaagle TV workin’ out fer ya MOLE!?
SCROOGLED, again!
Googledoomed
Google’s approach to everything, throw enough mud at the wall, see what sticks.
Google will never have the patience and focused approach of Apple and other nimble successful companies.
Yet another reason Apple won’t release a hardware “TV set.” Obsolescence happens quickly to hardware. Look at what happened to the iPad 3!
Define obsolete?
> it ‘executed a full-scale launch with a beta product, and it cost us dearly.’”
A few higher-ups didn’t heed that lesson at Apple. The cost might not be monetary, but Apple is partly driven by brand image and that’s definitely taken a hit lately.
google tv right now cannot innovate anything new (copy/steal)
because they are still awaiting the real APPLE TV. without Apple TV , they are blind and lost.
Google is waiting for Apple to launch a revolutionary TV so that it can rush out a copy and give it away free for Samsung to make billions while it eats peanuts. And Wall Street will applaud.
+1
EXACTLY!!!
Hey Schmidt. You NEVER go full retard…