Google announced today that it has officially acquired Motorola Mobility. The deal has been in the works for a while now, but had to get approval from a number of international jurisdictions, including those in Europe, China and the United States.
The acquisition will, of course, result in some turnover in the company, starting at the top. Google announced that Sanjay Jha will be stepping down as CEO of Motorola and Google executive Dennis Woodside will take over this position.
Google CEO Larry Page on the acquisition:
It’s a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound–as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone. That’s why it’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I’m confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.
Motorola jumped on the Android bandwagon early, delivering handsets with the open source operating system from Google since 2009. When the acquisition was initially announced, Google indicated that they hoped the purchase of Motorola Mobility would “help supercharge Android.” Particularly attractive to Google is Motorola’s suite of wireless patents, which should help protect Android from its many patent-infringement lawsuits.
Source: Google Official Blog
