Early this morning news broke that Google had just struck a deal to acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion, read on to learn more.
Motorola was split into 2 different companies (Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions) which was finalized in January 2011. Google did not purchase all of Motorola, only just Motorola Mobility which is their cell phone division. Of course this is all subject to approval from the US government and shareholders, so it's not a for sure thing just yet, but this is still a big, big deal. Here's a list of what this could mean, and what we know:
- Google would own all of Motorola Mobility's patents in which to fight (and/or start fighting) their ongoing patent war with other companies.
- Google could now build their own hardware and they could be more like Apple, and could potentially open up their own Google retail stores.
- Google plans to keep Motorola Mobility operating as per the usual with the exception of producing primarily Android handsets.
- Android will still be licensed for free to all handset makers.
All in all, this is just about as huge as AT&T acquiring T-Mobile, but it makes sense. It's hard for a software company to sit idly by when you see the success of the dedicated hardware/software model that Apple has so efficiently perfected. It seems like smartphones are getting a big push these days that perhaps it's about time to sell your used cell phone.