We first learned about Google purchasing Motorola Mobility back in August last year and today Larry Page has taken to the Google Blog to announce that the deal has been completed, just days after Chinese regulators approved the purchase. The current CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down and will be replaced by long-time Googler Dennis Woodside.
The sale for 12.5 Billion dollars will see Google take ownership of Motorola Mobility’s 17,000 patents and according to Tech Crunch Motorola could see staff layoffs as part of efforts to turn around it’s financial status, which is quite frankly not great, they reported a 121 Million Dollar loss in Q1 2012, but Dennis Woodside increased revenue at Google in the U.S. from $10.8 billion to $17.5 billion in under three years as President of the Americas region, so it will be interesting to see if he can do the same with a hardware manufacturer.
So with that out of the way, what can we expect to see from the sale, the answer isn’t really that clear. Google hasn’t publicly announced what it intends to do with the company, Eric Schmidt has stated that the company ‘will run it sufficiently and independently’ and that a ‘Firewall’ would be built between the two companies in regards to Android. So really the speculation still runs rampant. All we can do is sit back and throw ideas out there till Google actually starts announcing things.
Bear in mind that Motorola Mobility not only makes mobile phones and tablets but also is a pretty big deal in regards to TV Set-top Boxes, UHF transmission and reception equipment(CB Radios), Cable Modems and various mobile accessories. So I’m going to throw it out to you guys, what do you think Google should do with Motorola Mobility in regards to products?
