Google's Motorola Adventure: Stinging Defeat, Or Semi-Victory?

Nerval's Lobster writes "Google had previously sold Motorola's Home division for $2.4 billion. Combine that with yesterday's $2.91 billion sale of Motorola's remaining assets, subtract the $12.5 billion acquisition price for the company back in 2011, and Google's little smartphone adventure cost it roughly $7.1 billion even before you start throwing in expenses related to actual production, marketing, and personnel. That's a hefty chunk of change, but some analysts think the deal was ultimately a good one because it allowed Google to pick up patents, engineering talent, and insight into the mobile-device marketplace. It's debatable, however, whether those patents ultimately helped Android in the still-raging smartphone wars, and Google was slow to promote Motorola smartphones out of fear of irritating other Android manufacturers. At least Google can console itself with the thought that so many of its other acquisitions—including YouTube and DoubleClick—resulted in massive profits; but you can't hit a home run every time you step up to bat."

Comments

it went exactly as planned

[nimbius]

People forget Google is keeping the patents previously held by motorola in this deal. The patents would be used solely to defend against litigious trolls like Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft -- having failed deleteriously to make any headway in mobile phones -- being relegated to siphoning off revenue from Google, and Apple having run out of gas to keep innovating after blowing their wad on iDevices in the Jobs era. Without a strong patent portfolio Google would expect to find itself bled quarterly in tandem with microsofts earnings and losses reports like so many other TomToms and Samsungs. And without said patent portfolio Apple would surely enjoy bleeding Google dry in court for centuries given their deep pockets.

Motorolas mobile phone technology was easily outclassed by HTC and made further irrelevant by the fact that Google has vehemently resisted becoming a hardware company. This is the equivalent of sucking the juice out of a Capri Sun, and finding someone willing to buy the packaging. Any patents or prior claims inherited by the Motorola purchase, one would conjecture with much chagrin, would be employed to defend against Microsoft hardware patent chicanery in court. As of late Redmond has taken a keen liking to sticking their dick in googles hardware manufacturers as a means of surviving a market that doesnt seem to give two shits about them beyond XBox.