Skip to footer

EU approves Google's $12.5B Motorola Mobility acquisition

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement Monday that regulators didn't believe the transaction itself raised any competitive problems.

|
Mark Lennihan/AP/File
In this Jan. photo, attendees at the National Retail Federation listen to a discussion about Google Wallet, in New York. The EU's antitrust watchdog has approved Google's $12.5 billion takeover of cell phone maker Motorola.
  • By Gabriele Steinhauser and Michael Liedtke Associated Press

| SAN FRANCISCO

Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility has won approval of European antitrust regulators, moving Google one step closer to completing the biggest deal in its 13-year history.

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement Monday that regulators didn't believe the transaction itself raised any competitive problems.

The EU action means Google Inc. now only needs government approval in the U.S., China, Taiwan and Israel before it can close a deal announced six months ago.

Google has indicated it expects the other regulatory reviews to be completed soon, saying it hopes to take control of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. early this year.

"This is an important milestone in the approval process and it moves us closer to closing the deal," Don Harrison, Google's deputy general counsel wrote in a blog post

Google is counting on Motorola's more than 17,000 patents to help shield its Android operating system from lawsuits alleging intellectual theft.

In granting its approval, the European Union raised concerns about Motorola's aggressive enforcement of its patents

"The Commission will continue to keep a close eye on the behavior of all market players in the sector, particularly the increasingly strategic use of patents," Almunia said.

Earlier this month, the Commission launched an investigation into whether Samsung is using some of its key patents to hinder competitors. Like Motorola, Google is also locked in a globe-spanning legal battle with Apple, claiming the maker of the iPad and iPhone is using some of its patents without permission. At the time, Almunia's office indicated that similar investigations against over companies may follow.

But the commission decided to treat its examination of the merger separately from potential concerns it may have over Motorola's patent enforcement.

It said it sees no danger that Google Inc. will prevent other device makers from using its popular Android operating system after the takeover.

"Android helps to drive the spread of Google's other services," the Commission said. "Given that Google's core business model is to push its online and mobile services and software to the widest possible audience, it is unlikely that Google would restrict the use of Android solely to Motorola," which only has a small market share in Europe.

It said it also sees no competition problems in Google owning Motorola's patents for 3G and other wireless technology that other device makers will need for their products to function properly on modern networks.

"Access to such 'standard essential' patents is ... crucial for players on the smartphone market," the Commission said, but it added that the "would not significantly change the existing market situation in this respect."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to EU approves Google's $12.5B Motorola Mobility acquisition
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0213/EU-approves-Google-s-12.5B-Motorola-Mobility-acquisition
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe