Google to Acquire Motorola

Larry Page:

This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences.

I’m sure HTC and Samsung are thrilled by this decision.

So why would Google do this? (Other than Page’s stated goal of “supercharging” the entire Android platform, of course.) Supercharging Google’s patent portfolio:

Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

I’d say where by “anti-competitive” he means “competitive”. But I must say, I didn’t see this coming, and it’s a very clever solution to the mobile patent corner Google had painted itself into.

★ Monday, 15 August 2011