Tech Thursday – Google’s deal to Purchase Motorola, what is it really all about?
August 18, 2011We all heard the news about the deal Google reached earlier this week to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings for 12.5 Billion dollars. This came several months after Microsoft reached a deal to buy Skype for $8.5 Billion. So what does Motorola have that Google is so interested in? Well there are several opinions out there regarding this.
The first, Google wanted to have ability to start controlling the hardware of the mobile devices that are powered by the Android OS. Many feel that one of the biggest advantages Apple had over Google in the mobile world have been the fact that they (Apple) produced both the hardware and software for their iOS devices. The second, Google is interested in acquiring Motorola in order to obtain its patent portfolio. This portfolio could help Google protect itself from many patent lawsuits that have been surfacing against Google and it’s Android OS recently.
We came across another interesting opinion today that makes a whole lot of sense as well. Dana Blouin writes on technocrati.com that a good reason for this step by Google might be the fact that they will own Motorola’s slice of the set top box sector. With Google TV’s recent failure, this could be a great opportunity for Google to re-launch this product by partnering with cable companies, “a sector that Motorola Mobility already has a considerable foothold” Blouin writes. With the success of Netflix video streaming and the rumors about Apple’s intentions to start making their own television sets, the Video streaming has been marked by many experts as the next hot market, and it would make a lot of sense for Google to set their eyes on dominating that market as well.
Google said about the acquisition that it would drive innovation for the Android platform. Once the purchase deal is approved and executed we will all be able to get a better idea of what this deal was really all about, but until then we’ll just have to settle with the opinions and rumors that are out there.
