Google, Motorola Deal Officially Official

It’s official: Motoroa Mobility is now part of Google. The deal has been approved in the US, Europe and China.

The press release quotes Google CEO and co-founder Larry page as saying:

"I'm happy to announce the deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation. It's a great time to be in the mobile business, and I'm confident that the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.”

For its part, Motorola Mobility will continue operating as an independent business, continuing to pump out handsets and licensing Android like other companies. But Google still claims that the purchase should let the company “supercharge” its mobile ecosystem, giving them patents to defend themselves with and hardware development expertise.

Whether Google actually wants to get in on the hardware game is another question entirely, however. Google has shown little interest in making its own hardware outside the Nexus line, which the company uses to showcase what an Android device should look like. We don’t yet know whether Google plans on using Motorola as its own smartphone foundry.

There are rumors that Google will launch 5 Nexus devices to advertise its next hardware cycle. Google hasn’t said who will be making the devices yet, though I would bet that Motorola will be making at least one, as will HTC and Asus (I’m betting 2 of those Nexus devices are tablets, and Asus is a master tablet maker).

Rumors are currently swirling that Google is planning massive layoffs at Motorola, a move which would appear to reinforce the idea that Google is skipping the hardware market and that the purchase was about the patents.

The deal went through for $40 per share, which works out to roughly $12.5 billion.

Engadget Photo by : Carlos Luna