Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

DOJ approves Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility

The agency also approves patent purchase deals by Apple, Microsoft and RIM

The U.S. Department of Justice has approved Google's acquisition of mobile-phone and tablet maker Motorola Mobility for about US$12.5 billion, following the European Commission's approval earlier in the day.

Google is still waiting for approvals from China, Israel and Taiwan before the deal is final. Canada's investigation is also ongoing. The search giant still says it hopes the acquisition will close in "early 2012."

The DOJ on Monday also approved bids by Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion (RIM) to purchase some Nortel Networks patents, as well as Apple's purchase of some Novell patents.

The DOJ's Antitrust Division has "determined that each acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition," the agency said in a press release. The DOJ has closed its investigations into the three deals.

Google's acquisition of Motorola is unlikely to cause major changes to the mobile industry, the DOJ said.

"The evidence shows that Motorola Mobility has had a long and aggressive history of seeking to capitalize on its intellectual property and has been engaged in extended disputes with Apple, Microsoft and others," the DOJ said. "As Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is unlikely to materially alter that policy, the division concluded that transferring ownership of the patents would not substantially alter current market dynamics."

Apple's acquisition of Novell patents that are important to the open-source community is unlikely to change the market because Novell had committed to providing the patents with royalty-free licenses for use in Linux, the DOJ said.

The acquisition of mobile patents by Microsoft and RIM should not hurt competition because the two companies' "low market shares in mobile platforms would likely make a strategy to harm rivals ... unprofitable," the DOJ said.

Separately, the European Commission on Monday also approved the Google/Motorola deal.

Google announced its agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility, including 17,000 patents and 6,800 applications, in August. Many analysts saw the deal as an effort by Google to protect its Android operating system from patent claims by competitors.

Rockstar Bidco, a partnership including RIM, Microsoft and Apple, was formed to acquire Nortel patents in a June bankruptcy auction. The group paid $4.5 billion.

Apple proposed to buy 882 Novell patents from CPTN Holdings, a partnership including Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and EMC, after the DOJ in April reached an agreement that kept Microsoft from acquiring the patents. Novell is the distributor of the SUSE Linux OS. CPTN purchased the patents for $450 million.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Apple, Department of Justice, DOJ, EMC, EU, European Commission, Google, IDG, Linux, Microsoft, Motion, Motorola, Nortel, Nortel Networks, Novell, Oracle, RIM, Rockstar
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: 3g, 4g, Apple, business issues, EMC, Google, mergers and acquisitions, Microsoft, mobile, Nortel Networks, novell, oracle, research in motion, Telecommunication, U.S. Department of Justice
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Seven Ways Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) Makes Your Supply Chain More Efficient
    webMethods Optimize for B2B offers a set of technology capabilities commonly described as Business Activity Monitoring (BAM). To appreciate the value of Optimize and how it operates in conjunction with webMethods Trading Networks, it is helpful to understand the basic concepts behind BAM and how the technology is applied in a business setting. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Control your Print Environment
    In your ongoing quest to maximize productivity and drive down costs, you might be surprised by the savings and greater competitive advantage you can achieve with a fully optimised and well-managed printing and imaging environment. In fact, studies have shown that managing your fleet holistically can save you upwards of 30% on your printing costs. And the savings increase exponentially when the scope of work includes automating your paper intensive workflows. Read more.
    Learn more »
  • Teleworking made simple—and secure—with desktop virtualisation technology
    Businesses of all sizes are increasingly focused on creating flexible work environments and offering telework options for employees. By administering policies and providing the technical capability for employees to work remotely, these companies can improve job satisfaction and worker attraction and retention. This paper explores the implementation of teleworking based on a foundation of desktop and server virtualisation.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.