Google Buys Motorola Mobility

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 15, 2011 6:40PM

In a move being hailed as good for both sides, Google has agreed to purchase Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Google agreed to pay a 63 percent premium for the cell phone spinoff, giving its investors led by legendary corporate raider and investment tycoon Carl Icahn the profit they were looking for. Google, meanwhile, acquires over 17,000 Motorola patents in the deal..

The deal also inches Google closer to something the company has never done, develop hardware. Syndicated technology columnist Andy Inhatko says the deal could possibly turn Google's Android smartphone platform into an earner for the company.

(I)t’s become clear that the idea of a free, open operating system that Google just gives away and works great was just an idealized fantasy. Over the past few years, Google has made subtle and consistent moves to exert more control over Android . . . specifically, the end-user experience. They’re attempting to control how apps are deployed and attempting to control access to APIs. Google certainly isn’t doing it to the extent that Apple does (a typical comminqué between Apple and their developer community ends with a Vader-esque “I am am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further”) but with each subtle move, the claim of Android as an open OS seems less like a defining philosophy and more like a marketing tagline in a press conference where no follow-up questions are going to be allowed.

Google said that the Android will remain open. Inhatko questions how long that will last, now that they're on the cusp of owning the cell phone maker that was the most committed to the Android software.