EU Clears Google's Bid For Motorola Mobility
DOJ Has Yet to Approve $12.5 Billion Deal
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 2/13/2012 1:53:18 PM
The European Commission on Monday approved Google's $12.5 billion bid for Motorola Mobility, which has yet to be cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The European regulatory agency said it approved the transaction "mainly because it would not significantly modify the market situation in respect of operating systems and patents for these devices."
However, 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," Joaquín Almunia, European Commission vice president in charge of competition policy, said in a statement.
The U.S. Justice Department also is expected to approve the Google-Motorola deal as early as this week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Google announced its plans to acquire Motorola Mobility in August 2011, a deal driven primarily by Google's desire to obtain the latter's portfolio of more than 17,000 patents to protect its Android mobile operating system from litigation by rivals like Apple and Microsoft.
The European Commission said it considered whether Google would be likely to prevent Motorola's competitors from using the Android operating system, concluding that was unlikely. It also said the deal would not significantly change the way companies access patents covering telecommunications standards such as 3G or 4G/LTE, nor would it enable Google to use Motorola's patents to obtain preferential treatment for its services, including search and advertising.
"This is an important milestone in the approval process and it moves us closer to closing the deal," Google vice president and deputy general counsel Don Harrison wrote in a blog post Monday. "We are now just waiting for decisions from a few other jurisdictions before we can close this transaction."
Harrison added, "As we outlined in August, the combination of Google and Motorola Mobility will help supercharge Android. It will also enhance competition and offer consumers faster innovation, greater choice and wonderful user experiences."
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