As you may know, Google announced its intent to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The company has positioned the acquisition as a defensive strategy to “anti-competitive attacks” from companies like Apple and Microsoft.
Google CEO Larry Page wrote on the official Google Blog this morning:
We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.
The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences. I am confident that these great experiences will create huge value for shareholders.
Here’s more on Google’s war of words with Microsoft on patents.
Google has maintained that it will keep Motorola Mobility as a separate business, and that the acquisition will not change Android as an open source platform. Wondering what other Android manufacturers are thinking about the deal? Well, a few of them lent their words to Google’s mini-site for the acquisition.
J.K. Shin, President of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Division said, “We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem.”
Sony Ericsson President and CEO Bert Nordberg said, “I welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.”
HTC CEO Peter Chou said, “We welcome the news of today‘s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem.”
LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company president and CEO Jong-Seok Park said, “We welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.”
Nokia, of course, has a big deal in place with Google’s chief rival Microsoft.
Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses.”
Google says that over 150 million Android devices have been activated.
More on the acquisition here.