“It’s been 2.5 days since the news first broke that Google (GOOG) was buying Motorola Mobility (MMI). There have been endless analyses about the deal,” Eric Jackson writes for Forbes.
“I agree with John Gruber that I think it’s most likely that Motorola put the screws to Google to make this deal happen. Carl Icahn first mused publicly about Motorola’s patents several weeks ago – obviously itchy for a deal,” Jackson writes. “CEO Sanjay Jha also touted Motorola’s patents on the last earnings call. Jha also made it clear publicly last week that Motorola was considering developing on the Windows 7 Phone OS. We now know that Motorola had been in discussions with Microsoft (MSFT) and Google for the last several weeks. Jha was obviously pushing for a full buyout of the company. It’s something Microsoft wasn’t willing to do but Google was.”
“I don’t believe for a second that Google will keep the handset or home business. If that is their plan, they are going to be deciding to turn their back on their partner ecosystem and becoming an end-to-end Apple clone in th mobile business. Maybe that’s what they believe and maybe they’re right. But, if so, their marketshare would drastically dwindle. I think they did the deal for the patents,” Jackson writes. “I expect Microsoft to outbid Google for the Motorola Mobility assets. I don’t think Google will keep Motorola. I think Microsoft will decide to trump them. I am expecting a higher offer in the coming days.
Jackson writes, “Larry Page is a 38 year old guy who’s never led anything before 6 months ago. He wasn’t even a community organizer before this. Academic research clearly shows that some of the riskiest strategic shifts for companies happen in a new CEO’s first year on the job. They want to put their mark on the place. They’re also much more self-confident than they probably deserve to be.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Since84” for the heads up.]
The community organizer crack is too effin’ funny.
Yes it is, and the zeitgeist thickens.
Anyway, Microsoft can not outbid Google unless they would agree not only to pay more than Google for the shares, but also pay $2.5 billion to Google as compensation for cancellation of the deal.
You’ve got your facts wrong. Moto’s breakup fee is $375M. I’m sure Microsoft’s bid will take that into account.
Its’ google that has to pay moto $2.5B if the deal doesn’t go thru.
If Microsoft makes a higher offer, then Moto can sell to them by paying Google $375M
I normally dislike non sequitur political barbs, but I have to admit I snickered.
agreed
Oh, boy, Sarah Palin’s sad attempt at humor…from 2008.
Oooo look… Arnold obsessed with Teams! I think his time worrying about ladies would be better spent on eHarmony.
Yes, and after two years with the “Community Organizer” at the helm it is definitely NOT funny to anyone!
The helm was friggin’ busted before 2008, and the whole Congressional asylum is more culpable than anyone else. If you think that a different President is going to magically change things, then you are sadly deluded. This country has fundamental problems which have been building for 30 years or more. The internet stock market bubble in the late 1990s masked some of it. Two wars in the 2000s along with massive tax cuts and interest rates near zero made everything look somewhat OK for another seven years or so. But then the whole backed up mess spewed out with nothing left in reserve to try to fix it – interest rates already at rock bottom, deficits already high making stimulus spending problematic, industrial jobs largely migrated overseas, thus decimating the middle class, financial institutions playing fast and loose after regulations were rolled back. Now everyone is pointing fingers. Well, point into a mirror because you own the problems. Are you going to fix them, or are you going to hope for a miracle from the next administration, or the one after that until finally it all comes crashing down hard. Own up to reality and help solve the problem.
well said. wish more people could see the light instead of just taking sides. there are only two ways to avoid the wreck ahead of us. one is slam on the brakes. the other is to step on the accelerator and drive around it. that is what congress and the current administration wants to do, but as you so accurately put is, the gas tank is empty.
if we can understand that we need to put gas in our cars why is so had to understand that same concept for our economy?
Those words should be stapled to the foreheads of every member of Congress. It takes a community organizer to understand them. Just think how much better we would be if the previous administration had had the wisdom to not start two wars, and to institute effective regulation of the mortgage banking industry. If Congress was packed with community organizers instead of world-class bullshitters, they would have the interests of the American people, not themselves, at heart.
America is in dire straits. There is too much hot air from both sides of the divide but no action. America has the world’s most intractable problems but it has no political will to tackle them. Since things cannot be rationally solved by the world’s most developed country, it behooves that drastic action should be taken for desperate times. One of the political solutions for America is to have a unity government. Nobody should think themselves as belonging to Democrats or to Republicans but for once everybody should think themselves as Americans. I think this should instill some iota of sensibility into the madness that America is in now.
Hey, it’s not my fault that Bush and Obama (and Clinton and Bush) have all been screwing up the economy. Remember when Bush took office and the democrats were blaming him for the dot com crash?
Reality is, none of these guys have been operating within the law, or within reason. ALL of them have been spending too much and taxing too much.
Government can create no jobs, yet Obamassa goes up there and says “they call it a spending bill, what do you think stimulus is?” to chuckles and guffaws from the economically illiterate.
And, years in, when Obama has done nothing but work to destroy the economy they are still blaming bush? Idiots.
As my Ozzie friends would say, “He can’t even organize a chook raffle.”
That one was actually a bit humorous. Some folks on this forum could learn a few things.
I think Larry was getting scared shitless and couldn’t sleep well anymore and thought let’s buy something big. That’ll teach them!
I’d love to see a bidding war to jack the price up a bit more. It’s fun watching Google blow their cash away.
I don’t think there’s any question that Google were all but forced into making this deal. The lawsuits brought against Motorola by Apple and Microsoft have them at the verge of capitulating, and they were publicly threatening to sue other Android makers. All hardball negotiating tactics used to force Google into accepting their terms.
Google is the malnourished retard in the tech sandbox
Google may become an end-to-end Apple lookalike, but an Apple clone? Only in their dreams! A clone is not merely a lookalike; it is also a workalike. Such a feat is utterly beyond Google’s capabilities.
Google doesn’t have the ability to be an Apple look alike. The best it could do would be a feeble wanna bee status.
I think Google was “Googed”. 🙂
I suppose with Larry Page’s experience with driverless cars he thinks he can hand the keys over to Motorola management and let them drive their own car. Unfortunately the Motorola car was involved in a car crash down Highway 9 coming up against the Apple SUV and as a result is wobbling around on two wheels and a gimped engine leaking oil all over the road.
Correction: as it turns out apple was actually driving a tank
The problem is that google did not include the shysters in the mergers and acquisition deal.
the WS big guns have not only missed out on the 30 basis points in fees, but also in placing bets before the deal went down(calls and puts).
Google can get back to positive press by promising to fund the deal with loans from the shysters they failed to include.
And to think that Eric T Mole mused in public about an pole Google merger would be called…
Dream on Pinkerton.
breeze
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 – 11:15 pm · Reply
And to think that Eric T Mole mused in public about what a future Apole Google merger would be called…
Dream on Pinkerton.
So far Windows Phone 7’s existence has made alot of people a lot of money. Maybe not Microsoft, but others, yeah. 🙂
This crybaby is a spoilt brat. It does not know about misery because it was born with a silver spoon in its mouth. Whatever it wants it gets without any difficulty. This juvenile, in spite of adult supervision, has not grown up to be responsible. It likes to steal other’s toys, but when someone steps on its toys it shouts bloody murder. It also likes to destroy other’s property because it thinks it can.
Google is in the telephony business not because it is serious about it. Google’s behavior is worse than a patent troll. It disrupts other’s business so that it can grow up its ads business. This is the most nefarious activity that should be banned outright. It uses its monopoly in one area to leverage into other areas. This is worse than product dumping by Asian countries in mature markets. Not only is this anti-competitive, but it is also not operating on a level playing field. It uses foreign partners like Samsung and HTC to destroy a host country’s businesses. Google should be stopped. It is the worse terrorist in the US.
Let us not get carrier away too far.
Advertising as a concept has a very useful purpose. There would be no way for consumers to actually find out about products they need without advertising. The concept has been in existence since ancient Egypt. There is nothing nefarious about it.
The primary problem with Google’s business is that it surreptitiously (i.e. without users’ knowledge) collects unique personal information and then sells that information to anyone who wants it.
I personally don’t have a problem with anonymous profiling of advertising audiences, as it increases likelihood of me seeing fewer ads that are more relevant. Traditional ad model (like TV or radio) is like carpet-bombing (I’ll never buy, or need, a retractable awning, as I live in an NYC apartment; nor do I need a car; yet I see dozens of car ads, and at least one or two awning commercials every day). Online advertising with anonymous profiling is more like sniper targeting, where consumer gets ads only for things that might be relevant for him. If someone politely asks me to provide some demographic info about myself, with a purpose of eliminating irrelevant ads and narrowing down the ads to only what may interest me, I would likely volunteer some of my personal preferences. However, I don’t want ANYONE to just take any of my personal information (such as my purchasing history with Google Checkout, Amazon, B&N, Borders, etc) and shop it around.
Please read carefully. I did not advocate the abolition of ads but what I object is the leverage of one’s monopoly into another unrelated area and treats it as a loss leader.
Who’s to say that GOOGLE does not FREELY license these newly ACQUIRED and needed TECHNOLOGIES to the ANDROID ALLIANCE team like HTC or SAMSUNG?
Who’s to say THAT this move does not OFFER the ALLIANCES the security and perhaps CONTRACT to build more ANDROID devices with RIGHTS from GOOGLE?
I am not trying to defend GOOGLE or ANDROID… only to offer that there is no guarantee that GOOGLE will go head to head with APPLE and manufacture MOTOROLA devices…. this was the ACQUISITION eyeing the 7 thousand or so MOBILITY PATENTS — which now GOOGLE can PLANT freely of USE into ANDROID for its ALLIANCES… YES?