“Shares of Google Inc. fell nearly 4 percent on Monday, after Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc’s warning of worse-than-expected financial results raised concerns about Google’s pending acquisition of the smartphone maker,” Alexei Oreskovic reports for Reuters.
“The $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola, the largest in Google’s history, is expected to close early this year,” Oreskovic reports. “Motorola’s weak results ‘may suggest further deterioration in the business since the acquisition was announced, and they highlight the uphill battle for Motorola’ in the competitive smartphone market, JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth wrote in a note to investors on Sunday.”
Oreskovic reports, “On Friday, Motorola Mobility said its fourth-quarter financial results would miss Wall Street expectations due to tough competition and higher legal costs associated with intellectual property litigation.”
Read more in the full article here.
Good use of $12.5B, Google. I hope that those patents were worth it.
Clearly, some companies are better at responsibly handling their cash and security reserves than others. It helps to have a well thought out, long term strategy.
No, it cost them more than $12.5B, as they’ve lost $8B today in market worth.
Google just got googled!
LMAO.
f**kem
RAZR burn …
Best comment of the day award!
HA!
Yes.
Proverbially sliding down the RAZR into a pool of alcohol.
Makes you twitch, don’t it?
Love it.
With the ability to outsource manufacturing, why would you buy a hardware manufacturer?
Google already “makes” (ahem, steals) the OS, the Motorola brand doesn’t hold much value in that market anymore, Best Buy will carry any handset that looks like it will sell (so Google’s not really buying distribution), and tech support can be outsourced.
Google would have been better off buying Prada, slapping the name on an OEM handset, and selling them with an online-only product.
Actually I said that as a joke, but that’s the winning go-to-market strategy for Google.
Within two years, the Motorola acquisition will be a complete write off. Never fear, we taxpayers will cover a good portion of the loss.
My bet is that the deal won’t close. If it does, Google shareholders need to fire management and the board.
MMI wil sold fewer total phones in Dec Q than Apple did in its “slow” Sep Quarter. MMI is losing market share to AAPL and Samsung. No way to reverse the trend, IMHO. MMI is tending toward becoming a RIMM like disaster.
Exactly. These will be some REALLY expensive patents, since that is the only thing at MMI of any value (and that value is questionable).
I think the recent run up on Google’s share price may be due to the buyback of the shares by Google itself. Notice the daily volume of Google’s share is very small when compared with other companies’ shares. Furthermore Google’s shares is very expensive and who have the deep pockets to afford such high price? No sane investor would want to chase a share with a high price tag and get burnt in the process. Since the share has been jacked up too high, this create an opportunity for existing shareholders to cash in, and thus you see the share price take the proverbial dive. What goes up must come down. An unfocused Google is another reason why shareholders are getting a bout of jitters.