China Approves Google Motorola Mobility Merger

symbolset writes "CNET is reporting that China has approved Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Previously approved by regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Europe, China was the last holdout. The deal will now reportedly close 'within days.'" I wonder what conditions Google may have faced from the regulators, and whether they include any exceptions to the "don't be evil" guideline.

Comments

Is China in on this, too, now?

[Compaqt]

It used to be you just had to get FTC approval for a merger.

Then the EU started to throw its weight around and got in on the act.

So now, China has to approve global mergers, too?

Is there a full list of approval authorities?

Do Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa (4 of the BRICS) also need to approve? All 200 or so countries of the world?

Or is it a game of chicken where if a podunk country says "You can't merge without our permission", a company will just say "Bye," but they can't say the same for huge markets?

Re:don't be evil

[symbolset]

Submitter here. Google left China's search engine market because China wanted them to enforce censorship and disclose identifying information for posters - and that violated their "do no evil" motto. The CEO at the time, Eric Schmidt wanted to do it. Larry page wanted to do it. But Sergey Brin took a position something like (not a literal quote) "then you'll do it without me because I'm not going there. Dad was a Russian political dissident and I might have grown up in a Gulag and you all might not have met me but for his escape to freedom. I won't be involved in anything like depriving others of freedom of speech." I imagine there were several incidences of the phrase "fuck you" involved too, but that might just be my imagination.

The hacking thing was a secondary issue, but might have been reason enough in its own right. Regardless, Google faced the threat and didn't cross the rubicon. They didn't cave. That should have submarined this Motorola Mobility deal, but it didn't. Google serves the China search market from Taiwan now, where these requirements don't apply - but the Great Firewall blocks some Chinese citizens from getting the best use of their Google, but at least Google isn't participating in it.

The fight over this is probably why Schmidt isn't the CEO any more. And that's OK. For babysitting Larry and Sergey for a few years he got $10 billion, which makes him the highest paid babysitter of all time.

That "I wonder" stuff was added by timothy, as is his right as an editor. The submission is the stuff in the blockquote.

The condition added by China's regulators is the same as other governments required: Android has to stay open - which Google intended anyway.

I'm actually pretty surprised that China approved this deal. I thought Google was going to have to take Motorola Mobility without their China operations - and that they would. Somewhere in China is a Google employee who earned a really large bonus. He made it rain.

Re:don't be evil

[symbolset]

Google printed options of no value, and the market made them into $10 B on its own. But Google didn't pay. That money didn't come out of Google's revenues.