Having gotten approval from both Chinese and US regulatory agencies, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) recently announced that it has finalized its purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (NYSE:MMI) for $12.5 billion, with Dennis Woodside replacing Sanjay Jha, as CEO.
Google’s long term plan to take over Motorola Mobility (MMI) has finally borne fruit after it was announced that the giant internet firm, would be the new owner of the phone company that had taken a huge bet on the Android operating system. The purchase of Motorola Mobility was carried out when the company’s share price was at $40.
The new Motorola Mobility CEO, Woodside has been one of Google’s best directors having overseen the growth of Google operation over the EMEA region, and Russia, and was instrumental in increasing Google’s revenues from $10.8 billion to over $17.5 billion in around three years, while he headed, Americas Google business.
Larry Page, the CEO of Google, supported the new head of Motorola Mobility, by saying that the new team at Google would be able to create the next generation of Mobile devices. He also added that now is the best time to be in the mobile business, because the numbers of people accessing the web are using phones, more than they use desktop computers.
However, Larry said that the former CEO, Motorola Mobility would continue working at the company so that a smooth changeover could be had. Sanjay Jha is credited with nurturing the company, and he was instrumental in taking a big bet on the Android system, that has become a huge part of most smartphones in use today.
The acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (NYSE:MMI) by Google began in August of last year, but it sought approval from US, and EU regulators in February of this year. Clearance from Chinese authorities took another three months, and is the reason Larry Page, was enthusiastic about the completion of the process.
Although, a few Motorola Mobility heads will continue working with Google, a new team has been unveiled and includes, Gary Briggs the former Google Consumer Marketing VP, Regina Dugan, who is the former head of DARPA, Vanessa Wittman- the former Chief Financial Officer of Marsh & McLennan, Mark Randall, the Amazon’s former supply chain VP, and Scott Sullivan, a former head of HR at NVIDIA and Visa.
Google, with its purchase of Motorola Mobility will also get the 17,000 plus patents that the mobile company holds and it will also take over all patent lawsuits that the mobile phone giant was engaged in.
Google has a history of handling software services and products, and with the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, it will be stepping in to hardware territory. So, it is not certain how this will mesh in with the giant internet firm plans.
However, Google has assured the public that with its new acquisition, it will supercharge the Android system, and increase competition in mobile computing so that the end users may have better choices availed to them.
