BLOG: Google Acquiring Motorola Mobility: It's All About Patents

[Ed Hardy]

My latest blog post on Brighthand Bytes is about Google and Motorola Mobility:

Google shocked the tech world today by announcing that it’s going to acquire Motorola Mobility, the company behind some of the most popular devices running Google’s Android OS. This has left many people wondering what this means — Is Google going into the hardware business? Is it going to block Samsung and HTC from making Android devices?

Read the full text of this post at:

Google Acquiring Motorola Mobility: It’s All About Patents

[Antoine Wright]

This is simply a redux of what happened with Symbian in the late 90s I don't wonder how this one would end.

[Mi An]

I don't know the relative size of their portfolios, but I can't help but think Google could have gotten an insanely better value and perhaps a better targeted portfolio for a lot less by buying Palm when it was on the auction block. For that matter, while HP still struggles to put the buy to use, they might well be interested in some licensing income.

“Based on our metrics, the value of Palm’s intellectual property is along the same order of magnitude as Apple,” he said. “The market is overlooking the IP value in Palm, which has great value.”

PatentVest, based in Santa Monica, Calif., scores the value of a company’s IP portfolio in many ways. These include looking at how often a company’s patents are cited by other companies.

Companies must cite pre-existing patents similar to their own in the pre-approval process for patent acceptance. The more times a company’s patents are cited, the more likely it is that those patents are of high value, Mazzarella says. Such patent echoes are also an indication that the companies share similar interests.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Motorola now, especially motoblur. Might there be more vanilla android soon?

[Drillbit]

Palm has nothing like Motorola Mobility when it comes to patents. On Motorola Mobility's 2010 corporate report, they have around 24,500 patents both given and pending (17000 awarded, 7500 pending). Many of those patents also includes those for key audio and video codecs like h.264, MPEG. This means the advantage extends well beyond Android but also for YouTube, Google Music and Google TV.

Also, Motorola Mobility has around 2 to 3 billion in cash. Which means after everything is paid, Google's real cost is around 9 to 10 billion.

[KSD]

Palm has nothing like Motorola Mobility when it comes to patents. On Motorola Mobility's 2010 corporate report, they have around 24,500 patents both given and pending (17000 awarded, 7500 pending). Many of those patents also includes those for key audio and video codecs like h.264, MPEG. This means the advantage extends well beyond Android but also for YouTube, Google Music and Google TV.

Also, Motorola Mobility has around 2 to 3 billion in cash. Which means after everything is paid, Google's real cost is around 9 to 10 billion.

its crazy how so far google has not made a disaster of a move so far....at least as far as i know of. I dont really follow this but i vaguely remember the tech bubble and how yahoo and how all those companies crashed and yet google keeps on going. Slow and steady wins the race?

[Drillbit]

This is a move that is both fraught with both genius and risk. It seems that Larry Page has a lot of both in his blood. Four months since Larry Page has taken over Google, Google has transformed. And this guy is just 37!

[Varjak]

I see a slight chance of something else too. If Google has a strong OS presence (Android), a strong web presence and income (advertising), and now a war chest of hardware and patents; they might be able to force the hand of carriers to open up data availability. If data remains tiered and expensive, it hurts Google. If they can open it up, they benefit. If the government would allow it, Google should look into buying T-Mobile. That way, they would be the market breaker for data pricing.

[KSD]

I see a slight chance of something else too. If Google has a strong OS presence (Android), a strong web presence and income (advertising), and now a war chest of hardware and patents; they might be able to force the hand of carriers to open up data availability. If data remains tiered and expensive, it hurts Google. If they can open it up, they benefit. If the government would allow it, Google should look into buying T-Mobile. That way, they would be the market breaker for data pricing.

hai doubt that would be allowed but that would be a great plan....if it went down that way. It could also go complete opposite....

[LandSurveyor]

.................................. If the government would allow it, Google should look into buying T-Mobile. That way, they would be the market breaker for data pricing.

You know, that would be pretty sweet, if only for stealing the candy from ATT.

But, assuming they could afford it after shelling out for Moto, there is the upcoming oversight procedure of the Moto transaction and there would be one for the T-Mo acquisition as well. Can you imagine how long the wheels would grind before all that came out?


Still ........ I like it.

[hal]

Incumbent to this subject, WSJ sees Nokia and RIM as 'apt for a sale'

Google Translate

Provided that Motorola Mobility is an enormous asset in the mobile technology, two corporations that currently face a loss of market value can be then targeted for a takeover.

However, as the announcement is fresh, both corporations are having a slight market share climb.

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/08/1...motorola-deal/