Google gets the nod for buying Motorola Mobility

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Google gets the nod for buying Motorola Mobility

Wednesday, 15 February 2012 04:59

Google Inc. Monday got the antitrust clearance from the US Justice Department and European Union of its $12.5 billion purchase of smartphone and tablet maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., but regulators said they would be tracking how Google and others use the necessary patents in the wireless industry. The Justice Department further sanctioned a second tech-patent deal that has led to antitrust concerns in the smartphone industry. It will permit a syndicate of tech companies including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd. to get a hoard of patents from bankrupt Canadian telecom-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. for $4.5 billion. In a third related announcement, the department cleared Apple's purchase of certain patents of Novell Inc. The department stated the deals "are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics." Monday's significant regulatory approvals move Google closer to completing an acquisition that it claims is very important to its mobile strategy. "The combination of Google and Motorola Mobility will help supercharge Android," Google stated Monday, in relation to its mobile operating system that is used in many smartphones. The purchase will give Google a powerful suit of patents to use in the rising cases of courtroom fights globally over the super-competitive smartphone market. Google is yet to get antitrust approval from other countries where Motorola does business such as China. People close to the matter said the deal might not close for several weeks. The EU's antitrust clearance wasn’t without admonishment that companies should quit using certain types of patents to file lawsuits against each other."We have approved this acquisition because, upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said to reporters. "But we will not abandon monitoring of this issue."

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