Acquisition By Google
On August 15, 2011, months after Motorola Mobility was spun off into an independent company, Google announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, subject to approval from regulators in the United States and Europe.
The acquisition viewed as Google being a white knight, since Motorola just had its fifth straight quarter of losses. In a post on Google's blog, Google Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Larry Page, revealed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is a strategic move to strengthen Google's patent portfolio, as Motorola Mobility has 17,000 patents with 7,500 more patents pending.
Google's Android operating system has recently come under fire in an industry-wide patent battle, in which Android manufacturers HTC, Motorola, and Samsung have been sued for alleged patent infringement, by Microsoft, Oracle and Apple. The Motorola Mobility acquisition is considered a means of protecting the viability of Android. Google has stated that it will run Motorola as an independent company. On November 17, 2011, Motorola announced that its shareholders voted in favor of the company's acquisition by Google Inc. for $12.5 billion, receiving approval from the United States Department of Justice and the EU on February 13, 2012. The deal received subsequent approval from Chinese authorities and was completed on May 22, 2012. Alongside the completion of the acquisition, Motorola Mobility's CEO, Sanjay Jha, was replaced by Dennis Woodside, formerly a Google Senior Vice President.
On 13 August 2012, Google announced that it would cut 4000 employees and close one third of the company's locations, mostly outside the United States.
Despite its close partnership and then takeover by Google, Motorola has still struggled to release Android 4.0 upgrades to many of its existing devices.
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