US regulators have given their go-signal for Google to buy Motorola Mobility for USD 12.5 billion but warned that they will strictly monitor the former to make sure that key patents to telecom sector will be licensed at reasonable prices.
The European Commission approved of the acquisition as well for the regulators do not see it as a threat to fair competition. But the deal is far from being over as approval from officials in Taiwan, Israel and China are still pending.
Google's intention to purchase the tablet, mobile phone and set-top box maker Motorola was announced in August 2011. Their Android platform is already leading the competition for top operating system being used in web-capable smartphones.
This potential acquisition (possibly the biggest in the history of Google) wills the company's most critical foray into the hardware industry where it has very little experience.
But Google has already announced that they plan to run Motorola Mobility as a separate unit.
However, an EU Commissioner has expressed worry over the possibility that Google will abuse the patents and dominate the market underhandedly.
This can be done through Google making it hard for new technologies to be used by others through making it unprofitable for others to adopt the technologies. That is precisely what observers are worried about as it will surely bring an antitrust probe later on.
Chinese regulators are given until the 20th of March to decide if they will approve the deal or commence a third stage of review.
Google's decision to purchase Motorola came briefly after they failed in acquiring Nortel's patents. They were later bought by a consortium led by Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson and Sony, EMC and RIM. The group paid USD 4.5 billion for 6,000 patents and patent applications.
Google has openly admitted that they are interested in Motorola mainly because of the latter's 17,000 patents (and 7,500 patent applications) as it gears to go head-to-head with Apple and protect Android manufacturers from patent litigation.
It also appears that the search engine giant is serious in their goal of delving into the hardware business. Just like what Apple has been doing, Google might want to have a hand on both the hardware and software facets of their products. This will allow them to develop their own line of smartphones eventually.
With Motorola's technology in set-top box, Google will be in the position to shift into the home entertainment service that includes TV.
Up until now, Google has been in a disadvantage in terms of litigation. However, having all these patents on their possession might just turn the tables in their favor.

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