Google’s risky deal: Benefits of snapping up Motorola Mobility not patently obvious

15 years ago

“Google is hoping to secure the long term future of its business — by turning that business on its head,” Rolfe Winkler and Martin Peers report for The Wall Street Journal. “With its proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Google is jumping into a lower-margin, cut-throat hardware business. Even for a company with as varied ambitions as Google, this is a risky deal.”

“Google’s willingness to buy Mobility highlights how much it needs to protect its Android mobile operating system, now caught up in a raging patent fight,” Winkler and Peers report. “Along with other Android-powered handset makers such as Samsung and HTC, Mobility has been sued for patent infringement by Apple and Microsoft.”

Advertisement: Limited Time: Students, Parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.

Winkler and Peers report, “Google’s deep cash resources should strengthen Android’s legal defenses. Moreover, Google will inherit Mobility’s portfolio of 17,000 patents, a critical intellectual property weapon. But the risks are significant. Google’s ownership of Mobility could undermine what has been Android’s big advantage: namely, the support it gets from multiple handset makers… Even settling the patent lawsuits could be harder, argues patent expert Florian Mueller. Google may want to use Mobility’s patents to negotiate a settlement that covers all Android handset makers. For Apple and Microsoft, agreeing to an Android-wide settlement may be unpalatable.”

Much more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]