Google acquiring Motorola.

[robbieduncan]

But times can change. If Motorola/Google is able to come up with a great phone, then the consumers will buy it. Back in the days, everyone would have answered Nokia but right now, maybe one out of 1000 might.

It's possible. But to my mind it's clear that this is Google paying about $10 billion for the patents and the remainder for a loss-making phone business with a tarnished reputation. Makes all the press releases about not over-paying for the Nortel patents very funny and somewhat two-faced.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Wow. Game changer! And how did Google keep this so quiet for so long?

 

[br.avery]

would this be a good time to buy MMI stock?

 

[dave420]

Sounds like some increased competition for Apple. Hopefully this change will lead everyone to develop better products.

 

[maflynn]

It's not semantics, the Nexus One was a successful handset, outside the "Direct from Google" channel.

Nexus One did fail, subsequent models have been popular. You're splitting hairs on this.

The bottom line is that now that Google is in the phone manufacturing business it has the potential to negatively alter its relationship with its other android partners.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

I think that will make the Xoom an very actual device with respect to Android ...

 

[kdarling]

So...

Apple buys a bunch of mostly infrastructure and semiconductor related patents from Nortel. With those patents, they can mostly force advanced LTE tower equipment makers to pay license fees.

Google buys an even bigger bunch of mostly handset and semiconductor related patents, along with hardware design and manufacturing capabilities via Motorola. They can make Apple pay license fees. or even act like Apple does and withhold some patents to force basic changes in the iPhone.

(Motorola has already sued Apple over some early wireless, email, proximity, power etc patents. Motorola has been making both dumb and smart handsets since the beginning of cell phones.)

The cold war term for arming yourself like this was "MAD". The difference is, it was supposed to (and did) prevent global wars because everyone was too afraid of starting one.

In this case, we're seeing tons of money being spent and patent / trade courts being tied up with litigation. Personally, I'd rather see more engineers than lawyers.

 

[KnightWRX]

Nexus One did fail, subsequent models have been popular. You're splitting hairs on this.

No, I'm really not. You just seem to not be aware of how well it was received and sold outside of the "Direct from Google" channel really. Again, it was a flagship phone at carriers.

Don't even dare quoting sales figure, those are only from the "Direct from Google" channel. Seriously, the Nexus One didn't fail at all, it's Google's online store for phones that did.

The cold war term for arming yourself like this was "MAD". The difference is, it was supposed to (and did) prevent global wars because everyone was too afraid of starting one.

The war is raging in the mobile industry. Forget us consumers, we matter little. Apple and others have shown that they will destroy their competition not through making great products, but through the courts. These corporations don't give a hoot about us consumers.

 

[maflynn]

No, I'm really not. You just seem to not be aware of how well it was received and sold outside of the "Direct from Google" channel really. Again, it was a flagship phone at carriers.

Don't even dare quoting sales figure, those are only from the "Direct from Google" channel. Seriously, the Nexus One didn't fail at all, it's Google's online store for phones that did.

What ever dude, you believe what you want, and I'll stand by my words. You're not going to convince me otherwise and no use arguing over this since we'll continue to disagree. Its taking this thread off track.

 

[ChazUK]

Looks like other OEM's are in support of this: (from the conference call)

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/15/live-blog-the-googlemotorola-acquisition-conference-call/

Q: Around Android partners
Rubin: I talked to the top five licensees. They all showed enthusiastic support. Android doesn’t make sense to be a single OEM. All of our existing OEM partners help make it what it is today.

 

[maflynn]

They may be "on board" publicly but moto was a competitor and so in a sense google is now going to be a business parter and competitor. If they suddenly start seeing new versions of android hitting the streets on moto phones well before they do, then that might change their stance a bit

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

That's one way to bolster your patent portfolio.

Smart move for exactly that reason. I guess Google learned its lesson with the Sun/Oracle/Java mess -- as long as lawyers believe in "Intellectual Property", every company has to have a defensive strategy. Now, if only Google could go back in time and buy Sun ...

 

[KnightWRX]

They may be "on board" publicly but moto was a competitor and so in a sense google is now going to be a business parter and competitor. If they suddenly start seeing new versions of android hitting the streets on moto phones well before they do, then that might change their stance a bit

Who's to say Google will persist in shipping Motorola branded handsets in the mid or long term ? Who's to say they'll even use the hardware division at all ? I wouldn't be scared if I were an OEM. This is mostly in-line with Google's public claims of needing patents to defend themselves.

This could be a simple patent acquisition. You know, like when you go to a fast food joint and buy a meal and get a toy as a bonus. The toy goes in the trash with the wrappers and the meal is what fed you for your money.

I don't see any reason to panic quite yet if I'm called Samsung or HTC or ZTE. If Google starts favoring their own "Motorola By Google" brand, then yes, you'll start having a point.

Smart move for exactly that reason. I guess Google learned its lesson with the Sun/Oracle/Java mess -- as long as lawyers believe in "Intellectual Property", every company has to have a defensive strategy. Now, if only Google could go back in time and buy Sun ...

Why ? They managed to mostly win that particular litigation. Much cheaper than acquiring a failing hardware business and a mostly irrelevant (to Google) technologies.

It made much more sense for Oracle to buy Sun, giving them full vertical integration for their enterprise solutions.

 

[Tarzanman]

Nothing has really changed for Samsung, LG, Sony, or other Android phone manufacturers.

Motorola WAS a direct competitor and Motorola will remain a competitor. The main difference is that Motorola will be a more benign competitor since Google will want to maintain a good working relationship with all of its partners.

The acquisition of the patent portfolio will probably take all of the teeth out of Apple's patent litigation.

If you look at it from one perspective, Google made a wiser choice than Apple. Apple went in with a consortium of companies and paid $4 billion for a group of patents that won't really help them improve their product.

Google paid 3 times that for a company that manufactures phones (and tablets?)

Apparently, this has been in the works for a very, very, long time. This is probably the entire reason that Motorola spun off Motorola Mobility from the parent company.

I have a friend who works for Motorola Mobility... ate lunch with him 2 weeks ago and he didn't breathe a word of this to me even though we talked about phones and google

 

[BaldiMac]

This acquisition makes Apple's purchase in the Nortel patents seem to be a pretty good investment. By spending $2.6 billion, they got their main competitor to spend $12 billion on a company that has been losing money for years, is outside their core competence, and will undermine (to some extent) their relationship with other Android licensees.

 

[Tarzanman]

They may be "on board" publicly but moto was a competitor and so in a sense google is now going to be a business parter and competitor. If they suddenly start seeing new versions of android hitting the streets on moto phones well before they do, then that might change their stance a bit

New versions of Android already hit the streets on Google's Nexus phones before other phones.

Heck, new versions are sometimes even available on 3rd party ROMS even before Google pushes it to their Nexus phones.

That won't change.

 

[barkomatic]

This is very positive news. I expect that if the merger goes through that we'll see some interesting devices come out of Motorola soon.

Keep in mind that Google has stated they will continue to operate Motorola as a separate business -- so we still may see Motoblur.

I have to say that Apple and Microsoft have been trying to eliminate competition by exercising some very questionable patent rights. Now, perhaps a "treaty" of sorts will be created whereby everyone will be forced to innovate by designing cool products rather than whining about patents.

 

[ChazUK]

They may be "on board" publicly but moto was a competitor and so in a sense google is now going to be a business parter and competitor. If they suddenly start seeing new versions of android hitting the streets on moto phones well before they do, then that might change their stance a bit

There seems to be a lot of chatter out there saying OEMs will be unhappy about the acquisition. It could have a negative effect like lots are speculating but a the consensus is that this is a good thing.

“We welcome the news of today’s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem” Peter Chou, CEO, HTC

“I welcome Google’s commitment to defending Android and its partners” Bert Nordberg, President & CEO, Sony Ericsson

“We welcome Google’s commitment to defending Android and its partners” Jong-Seok Park, Ph.D, President & CEO, LG

Source

Straight from the horses mouth (Andy Rubin), nothing has changed:

Q: How do you manage the business model issues related to the partners. How do you firewall issues that would come up?
Page: We’ve had tremendous success with ability to run ecosystem with a number of different partners.
Rubin: We have this strategy where we have this Nexus program and lead device strategy. We select, around Christmas-time each year, a manufacturer to release a phone. That includes all the components to build a device. Teams huddle together in a building and launch these. We don’t expect that to change. Acquisition will be part of that bidding process and lead dev. process. Android remains open to other partners (sidenote: sounds like there’s a bidding process to be involved in Nexus program).

source

I do hope it'll turn out to be a good thing which will help members of the Open Handset Alliance with some Google/Motorola backing/defence.

EDIT: It looks like we'll be seeing a new Nexus soon too which is cool.

 

[pugnut]

Excellent Point

This acquisition makes Apple's purchase in the Nortel patents seem to be a pretty good investment. By spending $2.6 billion, they got their main competitor to spend $12 billion on a company that has been losing money for years, is outside their core competence, and will undermine (to some extent) their relationship with other Android licensees.

You make a great point and that is valid IMO. I think the biggest issue here is that you can not buy your way into this. They culture at MOT is the biggest impediment to their own success. The need to say bye bye to all the employees and re-build with the right people.

 

[maflynn]

Who's to say Google will persist in shipping Motorola branded handsets in the mid or long term ? Who's to say they'll even use the hardware division at all ? I wouldn't be scared if I were an OEM. This is mostly in-line with Google's public claims of needing patents to defend themselves..

Who says that Google is going to kill of Motorola branded handsets.

Common sense dictates that if you're spending 12 billion dollars for a phone manufacturer odds are fairly high the buyer will continue to make phones

 

[Apple...]

Who cares about the 17,000 stinking patents they probably got out of the deal? The whole Java lawsuit with Oracle will go right through those.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Patent portfolio aside, this is going to get interesting if they don't shutter MMI. I fear this could end up causing Google and Android to lose a lot of prestige (My fear is as a GOOG investor and as an iOS fan -- Apple needs the constant pressure on it's back).

My problem with this deal is that Google has zero experience in hardware manufacturing. Let's face it, even Android's front end s/w isn't all that inviting, even as they copied iOS's look and feel plus a few more hard buttons. And MOTO phones for the most part have been a disaster. It's the reason why MOTO spun the division off years ago. So I'm unsure how this deal creates any synergy since it's not exactly a great handset maker meets great s/w maker story. It seems more like mixing bleach w/ ammonia.

 

[KnightWRX]

Who says that Google is going to kill of Motorola branded handsets.

Common sense dictates that if you're spending 12 billion dollars for a phone manufacturer odds are fairly high the buyer will continue to make phones

17000 patents.

And for all we know, all other Android OEMs just got a free license to use these as part of their Android handsets, which is a big win. It's not like Google isn't known to purchase companies only to freely license out the IP afterwards.

If I were Samsung or HTC, I wouldn't see this as a negative, no matter what happens to the handset division. Again, short term tells us nothing, we'll see where this goes in the mid and long term and as an OEM, there's no reason to fret yet.

Who cares about the 17,000 stinking patents they probably got out of the deal? The whole Java lawsuit with Oracle will go right through those.

Might want to get an update on that. That lawsuit is mostly done for Oracle. Their complaint has been gutted and very little remains. Google mostly won their bid in that field.

 

[*LTD*]

HTC and Samsung must be overjoyed.

 

[OllyW]

HTC and Samsung must be overjoyed.

They seem to be quite happy about it.