Google on Ulitzer

This morning we heard that Google has decided to pay a hefty $12.5B to acquire Motorola Mobile, the group that separated from parent Motorola under the leadership of Sanjay Jha. Google is paying quite a premium of 40% for this. Now what does this mean? Henry Blodget in his Business Insider article thinks this might be a disaster for Google. Android is the key motivation here. Motorola endorsed Android early and their android-based phone was the second most in market share at 29%. HTC has the highest share at 35% and Samsung is number 3 at 25%. Google was supposed to be the neutral supplier of the operating system to all these hardware manufacturers. Now with its acquisition of the second largest player, the others will see a channel conflict and if Motorola gains market share, they will be more upset. Of course Google continues to emphasize its vendor neutrality st... (more)

Google to Buy Motorola Mobility

Adding a new wrinkle to the mobile wars, Google said early Monday morning that it's buying Motorola Mobility for $40 a share in cash, or about $12.5 billion, a 63% premium, giving Google its own Android hardware maker. The move is expected to be greeted with consternation by rival Android licensees despite Google saying Android will remain open and despite how they might have politely greeted the news when Google CEO Larry Page told them Sunday. Google shrugged off the distress factor - which could be advantageous to Microsoft - by claiming the acquisition would "supercharge the ... (more)

FTC Antitrust Probe of Google Includes Android: WSJ

The Federal Trade Commission is apparently plowing down the same avenue as the European Commission in its antitrust investigation of Google but has added Android to its inquiries. The Wall Street Journal talked to "people familiar with the probe" and said the FTC is asking about whether Google "grants preferential placement on its web site to its own products," which sounds like what the EC is doing investigating the complaints it's gotten about Google. However, the Journal also said the FTC wants to know if "Google prevents smartphone manufacturers that use its Android operatin... (more)

Google’s Attempt to ‘Sandbag’ Oracle Fails

District Court Judge William Alsup told Google Monday that it can't come in at this late date - after facts discovery has pretty much closed - with what he called an "entire fleet" of additional claims that Oracle's Java patents are invalid. Oracle was ordered to winnow its beloved 132 claims down to 50 by June 1. Google was supposed to take its best shot at them by June 15. The judge didn't much care how long Google dithered around saying it "suggests a lack of diligence." "It is possible," he wrote, "that Google simply did not have that many good invalidity theories and is now... (more)

Oracle Gets to Depose Larry Page

Oracle is going to get the face time with Google CEO Larry Page that it wanted. Page has been ordered to sit still and answer Oracle's questions about those Java licensing talks Google had with Sun during a two-hour deposition. Oracle is supposed to limit its questions to "topics relevant to the willfulness of defendant's alleged patent infringement, and the value of Android" to Google. Google said last week that it rejected Sun's proposal that Google pay $100 million in royalties to use Java in Android. A Google lawyer described the offer as a co-development deal, rather than a... (more)