Everyone was baffled when Google made those crazy bids for the Nortel patents last month. Remember? They bid things like the distance from the earth to the sun, the number pi, and some other wacky numbers from mathematics. Which led ultra Apple fanboy MG Siegler to crow that Google had got “pi in the face” and was “living in a dream world” and “look like huge asses in retrospect.” Then MG went on to drool about how Android was doomed, penning a ridiculous piece that compared Apple to James Bond and Google to Le Chiffre, the evil villain in “Casino Royale.”
And today it all makes sense. Google just sandbagged its rivals. The whole thing was a rope-a-dope maneuver. Google never cared about the Nortel patents. It just wanted to drive up the price so that AppleSoft (those happy new bedmates) would overpay. Today, with the Motorola deal, Google picks up nearly three times as many patents as AppleSoft got from Novell and Nortel. More important, Google just raised the stakes in a huge way for anyone who wants to stay in the smartphone market.
Better yet, Google got its rivals to spend a few weeks defending the practice of using patents to attack other companies. Apple fanboys bent over backward to say that Apple was doing the honorable thing here by suing everyone in sight. All this slimy patent warfare that is so despicable when others do it becomes magically noble when Apple does it. Teaming up with other companies, including the evil Borg, to gang up on Google is all perfectly legitimate, par for the course, smart business practice, blah blah.
So now Google fires back, makes a huge acquisition, gets into the hardware business, buys up the best IP portfolio in the mobile space — and can position itself as a victim that’s just trying to defend itself against this gang of bullies. The Nortel auction just helps Google get approval for the Motorola purchase. Does anyone really believe this $12.5 billion acquisition just got thrown together in the last few weeks as a response to the AppleSoft patent grabs? Doesn’t it seem likely that Google and Motorola started talking long before the Nortel auction?
As for those crazy bids in the Nortel auction — that was just a way to leave a little “fuck you” in the paperwork for Google’s pals in Redmond and Cupertino to look back upon. That move is pure Larry Page. This is a smart, hyper-competitive guy with a mean streak and a nasty sense of humor. Kara Swisher recently compared him to Bill Gates, and now I see why. Page is turning out to be a better CEO, and more fun to cover, than anyone could have imagined.
Got that Apple Hatin’ MoJo working this morning, huh?
Moto may turn out to be a Trojan Horse. Not sure a second rate hardware company whose best days are LONG behind it with nearly 20,000 employees coming along for the ride is what Android needs at the moment.
Too bad they couldn’t have just taken the patents for 10 $billion$ and called it a deal!
And the there’s that pesky Larry Ellison waiting in the wings. Think there’s enough in the way of critical patents in the Moto pile to keep him at bay?
I don’t think Samsung and HTC would agree. And as Google was offered a chance to join in the consortium to buy the Nortel patents for a cheap price, this looks more like desperation to get out of the corner they painted themselves into.
Having used a Motorola Xoom, I can attest that the problem with the device isn’t the hardware. I’m not sure how this acquisition is going to fix that.
With that said, Android is built on stolen (unlicensed) IP and is used anti-competitively (one monopoly – search used to support what they desire to be another monopoly – mobile OS).
No amount of Google fanboyism can make the “don’t be evil” mantra ring true.
Hope you’re right, but a lot of lawyers are going to get awfully rich before this is over, companies large and small are patent trolling, and making it impossible for “anyone else” to get into a new technology space freezes out all entrepreneurs.
There will come a time — there’s always a time — for a new Google to emerge. Will it be able to in the new legal environment Google has endorsed with this deal?
After all if Google doesn’t try to monetize its new patent porfolio what did it pay for? And if it does, what’s the difference between it and Apple?
But thanks for a great piece. It’s nice to have so many thoughts provoked in so few paragraphs.
Paul:
1. You’re confusing Novell for Nortel (similar names, I understand)
2. If you’re a big company and are invited into a group that is about to do something that is likely illegal, what would you respond?
2.1 «FU guys, no way we’ll join your little racketeering club.»
2.1 or «Yeah, seems nice, thanks but no thanks»
3. No need to reply, just rhetoric and #justsaying
Actually, they were asked to join in on the Novell patents, not the Nortel patents (though most sites reporting it are getting the two confused as well)
And even if they WERE able to buy into the Nortel patents it wouldn’t help them. They wanted those patents for the same reason most countries say they want nuclear weapons. Not to use them, but to keep the other countries with nukes from being tempted to attack them. Buying into a consortium with Microsoft and Apple would mean Google couldn’t use those patents defensively. Furthermore, it wouldn’t do a thing to help Samsung and HTC in their current lawsuits, whereas having motorola patents (one of the few companies who didn’t work out deals with Microsoft yet for windowsphone) gives them a huge war chest that IS threatening to others.
And you don’t spend this much money in a “move of desperation.” It would’ve been much cheaper to just spend more on Nortel.
Paul: Why would you want to be part of a consortium when you need those patents to defend yourself from the other members of that same consortium?
THEY WERE NOT OFFERED TO BID ON THE NORTEL PATENTS!!
for the love god do people actually read the stories?
It was for the NOVELL patents.
actually, this looks more like a gigantic and well executed strategic move against microsoft and apple, who are being investigated for antitrust as we speak, for spending 4.5billion to be anti-google.
Any credibility you want to lend to Google’s business practices, and my belief of anything out of Larry Ellison’s mouth having anything to do with openness went out the window the day they made a 180 degree shift on net neutrality. That was a business decision. One that went against EVERYTHING they like to parade around about. It just happened to work in their favor.
This is also a business decision. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and anyone else with cash will do ANYTHING they are allowed to do under the law to make profits and pay dividends to shareholders. Google is just as dirty. Maybe in different ways. Remember, they did have Eric Schmidt sitting on Apple’s board playing dumb about Android’s direction while handling his very own iPhone prototype. Illegal? No. Ethical? HELL no. Good Business? Sure.
Anyone, like yourself, who believes that their chosen horse in this race is either a blind fanboy, incredibly naive, completely stupid, or possibly all of the above.
This is probably the dumbest thing Google has ever done.
1. Android partners will now have to differentiate themselves even further probably making Android almost unrecognizable while increasing that time between Android updates even further in the process.
2. Just like the fast food industry did in the 80′s when Pepsi bought KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, all the remaining competing franchises switched over to Coke products as to not help their competition by staying with Pepsi. This will help Windows Phone and WebOS a great deal, especially if HP decides to license WebOS.
Conclusion, I think Google just opened the door for more competition in the mobile space and frankly just shot themselves in the foot. It won’t kill them, but it sure will hurt them. Meanwhile Apple is probably laughing all the way to the bank.
I think this article is more about hindsight bias and less about showing us the “genious” of Larry Page.
Worst written article I have ever read. Filled with much speculation and a level of fanboism that I rarely see outside of android forums.
So they paid $12 billion instead of $4.5 billion and got a “good deal?”
Or they could have joined the consortium for next to nothing and taken those patents off the table but this is a good deal?
They just relagated all the other Android OEMs to official 2nd tier status and that’s a good deal? (not that unofficial 1st tier status really helped the Xoom.)
Now they have to worry about the profitability of a 19,000 employee company in a low-margin, cut-throat hardware business, and that’s a good deal?
Buying some patent protection was probably smart.
Paying $12 billion, ticking off your OEMs, taking on a low-margin hardware business and managing 19,000 more employees will be a “challenge.”
@Ralph Henson
Motorola’s best days are “LONG behind it”? Did you miss the Droid? They had a dry spell between the RAZR and the Droid, granted, but the Droid _made_ Android and they still have plenty of popular handsets.
Dream on!
Totally disagree with both comments , first the didn’t buy MOTO for their hardware just their patents. So it doesn’t matter if its second rated hardware. And two, like the writer stated this just didn’t happen over two weeks, its not a desperation move at all. It’s Google saying fuck you to two companies that cry like bitches because they are not the best anymore
They are going to pay a 60% premium on Moto’s Friday stock price, btw.
Outside of search and ads, goole has never even been able to run a 2nd profitable business – now to pay 12 billion for old patents AND drive their android partners to win? Google is clearly desperate out of ideas. Why not just Verizon’s legacy of 2 million employees also. AND ig googles to oracle, the 12 billion won’t matter … Motos value drops like a rock as now google is willing to give away Motos patents away for free to induce the other android partners to stay. Google is rapidly becoming the MS OF THE 21 century – making fistful of money in what they do best and then flushing it away to try and become cool in businesses they have no idea how to run. Google has no second profitable 2nd division. That record will hold true.
Ahhh… so desperate Dan thinks this is game, set and match.
Fool. This is just one play of the cards in the long game. There are so many twists to come and raising the victory flag whilst coincidently calling out MGS for the same sin is the antithesis of intelligent commentary.
Sheesh
This will certainly help protect Android for HTC, Samsung, et al. These are “essential” patents in the mobile space that Google acquired. Now if only we could kill the entire patent vampire.
Apple has a lawsuit against Motorola, and by de facto, that means they are effectively suing Google now. It fails me to see how this will help Android against Apple. It only shows that Google has accepted Apple’s business model, that as a proprietary mobile phone company that makes both the HW and SW, is the best way to go. It must scare HTC, Samsung and all the rest, who can only smile and put on a good face.
Okay, lemme see if I have this straight: Google got Apple and Microsoft to deliberately overbid, ultimately spending $4.5 billion for some 6,000 patents.
Google’s NOT overpaying, however, by spending almost three times that much for fewer than twice times that many patents (exhausting a third of their cash reserves in the process), plus a whole pile of manufacturing facilities and such that they’re (apparently) not actually interested in.
They’re SO not interested in this that they figure it’ll be clear to every other member of the “Open” Handset “Alliance” that they’re not REALLY getting their platform from the company who’s now in the business of competing with them on hardware. The same company that got exceptional early access to otherwise-unavailable builds of the tablet version of the platform.
Mm-kay.
Classic. “Pulls a rope-a-dope” is so true and it fake everyone out. This is almost as good as your FakeSteveJobs “there is no spoon” post.
@Jbelkin your entire premise is b.s. Android is a profitable business unit. Keep trollin’
Now Android handset makers and Google can focus on upholding a responsibility to Linux GPLv2
Paul: Nice FUD there. How would Google defend itself from Apple and Microsoft when they all jointly own the patents?
As I said on Google+, Apple just got a Pi in the face.
At least 1 person (Brian S. Hall of Smartphone Wars) believes that Google will simply fire those 20K Moto employees.
It’s obvious from the comments that some still don’t get it. This isn’t hardware, it’s about the patents. Google is now in a position to better defend Android. Motorola has the biggest patent portfolio in the mobile space. And not they’ve been snapped up by Google. Checkmate!
Three times as many patents! Wow Patents are now being valued by weight.
Hate to piss on the parade but — given the way Google is managed — yes, I do think this deal was thrown together quickly and of course Google hasn’t acquired anything, yet — merely stated intent. What would a hostile bid by Apple (far richer than Google) do to your story..?
That offer never made sense. The whole point of Google wanting the Nortel patents would be to have credible counter-suit potential against MS an Apple.
“And as Google was offered a chance to join in the consortium to buy the Nortel patents for a cheap price, ”
Are you really that STUPID ? The patents were supposed to be a defense – if Google bought the patents with say Microsoft, then Google could never use those patents against Microsoft – making it a waste of money.
No Apple hating from him, just stating it as it is.
“Old patents” is actually a “GOOD” thing. Why? Because they’re usually the base for most new things that come about. In patentees – old really is gold here.
As for ‘giving Moto’s patents for free’.. no one needs to give anything “AWAY”! They’re just choosing (or shall choose) not to charge licensing fees .. nothing is ‘given away’. They can charge the fees anytime they wish to.
@Synth
”
So they paid $12 billion instead of $4.5 billion and got a “good deal?”
Or they could have joined the consortium for next to nothing and taken those patents off the table but this is a good deal?”
If they had to share ownership the consortium it would have been a waste of money.
LOL
M&A talks dont last long, especially for public companies, in order to avoid leaks and speculation around their shares.
After losing the Nortel patent, Google looked at the possible moves. They looked at possible companies and in the meantime they played sneaky answering publicly to Microsoft and putting themselves as the victims.
“Google, just be evil”
@Dan: “And today it all makes sense. Google just sandbagged its rivals.”
Wow, you have got it totally wrong… unless you consider Google’s Android “partners” to be its rivals… which they have just become.
This is reminiscent of the fiasco when Microsoft turned on it’s PlaysForSure licensed “partners” by coming out with its own Zune media player.
Wonder what happened to all of those licensees’ media players? The same thing that happened to the Zune… all are gone.
Microsoft’s former media player software “partners” are now (or should be) less likely to become involved with Microsoft again. Notice how few have taken up the Windows Phone 7 banner, and have instead put their money behind Android.
But that is likely to change too, now that Google has gone from a friend to a competitor.
Apple, HP, Nokia, and RIM are probably all laughing their butts off today.
I apologize for sounding so mean but why don’t you stop for a second and think before you talk. How does Google joining a consortium to purchase Nortel patents make any sense? Ask yourself one fundamental question, “Why was Google trying to purchase the patent?”. Now ask yourself another question, “Why did Microsoft purchase patents it already licensed?”.
I personally do not agree with Google purchasing Motorola; however, I think this is far from being desperate.
i use a droid 3 and love it…cant wait to see what some google love can do for next years droid4
Read “The perils of licensing to your competitors”:
http://www.asymco.com/2011/08/15/the-perils-of-licensing-to-your-competitors/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Asymco+%28asymco%29
Everyone is so caught up in the patents and mobile phone side of things that the totally missed the fact that Motorola is also the leader in set-top-boxes. This could very well be more about pushing Google TV (which is soon to just be Android) onto every cable tv box out there. The patents are just icing on the cake.
So Google just raised the price to Apple for Nortel’s patents with their auction bidding. Maybe Apple could return the favor by topping Google’s $12.5B bid for MMI? (At least force a higher bid from Google). I bet PALM now wishes they held out a little longer before selling to HP for $1B like they did earlier.
Mathematical constants are not wacky. Donald trumps comb over is wacky.
So Google spends almost 3 times as much for 3 times the amount of Novell patents? Sounds like a steal.
I actually think that while getting the patents was smart, Google building hardware would be disastrous, as it would alienate the other handset manufacturers. Manufacturers who aren’t exactly making tons of money off Android phone (Apple and RIM do quite well, taking the bulk of the profits in the sector). Google does well, because of search-generated revenue on Android phones. How loyal to Android will Samsung, LG, et. al. be knowing that they’re competing with Google now when their margins are thin. I suspect this could work against Android in the long-haul for marketshare. But, if Google moves to model of vertical integration, their profits should blow through the roof.
The one company I see benefiting most from all this is Microsoft, who have looked absolutely hopeless. If Google does alienate the other handset manufacturers, then I suspect many might just move to Windows (or, if HP is smart, WebOS). This might just be the opening that they need to gain traction (though I’m sure Ballmer will screw this up royally).
What happens to Apple and RIM? At this point, I see Apple maintaining status quo, with slow loss of marketshare, but huge profits. But RIM is anyone’s guess…..
Mike, when someone is granted a patent on something obvious or with prior art, they have stolen from the public domain.
The thing is that this doesn’t solve any of the problems that Google actually had. HTC (among other Android vendors, I presume) still violates many of Apple and Microsoft’s patents (not just the Nortel ones), and this doesn’t buy them any protection. So Android licensees are still up shit creek.
This could help Motorola, but they were already dying on the vine as a cellphone company – making less and less from fewer and fewer phones. Google can prop them up for a while, but they’ve never shown that they are any good at selling actual products, so I’m not sure how much help they can give.
This now puts Google in a position of competing EVEN MORE DIRECTLY with its licensees, so it seems likely to drive companies like LG, Samsung and HTC into the arms of Microsoft who a) doesn’t compete with them and b) will be suing the pants off of them if they don’t.
How is this a master stroke? Did paying all that money for a hardware vendor that Apple is slowly strangling really make any sense?
I’m not convinced.
Moto has 3B in cash so it’s less than 10B for starters that’s being paid.
With record low rates of return on cash at present congrats to goog for at least trying to make some money.
Not sure I think the Goog board deserve spontaneous BJs for this acquisition but they also nearly spent 8B on plucking groupon which will be a steaming pile of turd of epic proportions as they eventually plow headlong into the ruin of the retail market for goods they are helping decimate.
All this will lead to is handset costs coming down to fan boys on all sides so get your pom poms ready.
Apple fanboy loser.
Could you expand at least a little on that claim? How is Android profitable if it is a free OS? By profitable I would assume you mean the traditional, revenues exceed expenditures, and not some esoteric redefinition.
WOW. Someone is drinking that Apple Kool-Aid lol
How does “Motorola: We’d Work With Microsoft If We Could Get That Nokia Deal” tie into all this?
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/motorola-wed-work-with-microsoft-if-we-could-get-that-nokia-deal-2011-8?op=1#ixzz1V7xYASrh
You nailed it Dan. Apple et al were essentially mugged out of 4 billion dollars.
Yup. I think the toxic by-products of a state of hatred are severely impacting brain function. This is the very epitome of “spin”.
The problem is that just because Google buys I to a consortium confers no rights to firms using Google software. So the only way shared ownership of patent rights matters is if … Google sells all the Android phones under its own name!
Dan’s self-congratulation is a bit premature, methinks. I don’t see how MMI patents start suddenly mattering to Oracle, nor how Samsung now gets rights to Apple’s UI and trade dress patents, nor how Google addresses its laundering of GPLv2 licenses which some claim forfeits it’s right to distribute the core Android OS.
After all, just as RIM seemed foolish when talking about “tonnage” of apps, patent importance isn’t measured on a scale.
Just to be clear here: The US patent system is pretty screwed up, and all of this patent purchase action (on Google’s part and on Apple/Microsoft’s part) is a sign of how screwed up it is. Most of these patents are being used defensively (I like the “nuclear weapons” analogy above), they are not being used to create new jobs, develop new products, or expand or improve existing products. I agree with the folks who are saying that this is clearly an attempt by Google to purchase patents (oh, and incidentally a cellphone manufacturer) that can be used defensively in lawsuits with other handset makers.
Glad that’s out of the way. As far as this article goes, I’m really not sure why it’s got this snarky tone. There is no evidence offered that Google’s bids for the “Nortel” patents were false or “rope-a-dope.” I suspect they really wanted them and thought their bids would succeed. And despite Google’s subsequent complaining, they _did_ have the opportunity to participate in consortium bidding, which would have made sure that the patents could not be used against Google in any way. But Google hoped to use these patents OFFENSIVELY, not defensively. And you know what – the system is set up to allow them to do just that.
This is good old competition using the (admittedly flawed) intellectual property/patent laws we’ve got. Sure, it mostly funds lawyers and patent trolls rather than others, but that’s the way the system is set up. These companies are just doing what is economically rational. Why does everyone act like it’s a personal battle between two sitcom characters? Sheesh.
Dan Lyon’s a gigant asshole. man you suck.
Getting in the $4.5 billion deal wouldn’t allow them to use the patents against the members of the consortium.
Motorola will remain independent since a hardware company won’t help in their mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.
They were very clear in their conference call that Nexus phones would remain a “bid to build model”.
Google ROKR anyone? Now THAT will be GOOL!
Somehow it sucked festering moose appendage when Apple and Microsoft were doing it to Google but now it’s all okay because GOOG bought MOT? Man have you slid.
Here’s the deal Dan, once Oracle is done reaming Google a new one Sun’s former shareholders will get not so sloppy seconds since it’s plausible that had Google done the right thing and licensed Java Sun wouldn’t imploded so soon.
Don’t be evil?!?!? Bwhahahahaha…it should be “don’t be dicks.”
I can picture the author of this post as a 12 year old greasy fanboy who is desperate for attention amongst other android fanboys. Just shut the fuck up kiddo and go back to your droid fanboy forums
real douche.
They also now have a wedge into the telecom space:
http://sent2null.blogspot.com/2011/08/google-buys-motorola-analysis.html
I have legal experience of patents in Europe and from what I know, this really is a smart move by Google.
My personal opinion is that Google will probably sell the hardware business.
Remember, Samsung and HTC didn’t quit Windows mobile just because Microsoft got into bed with Nokia….
Google is also sand bagging on the IP. The smell emitting from IT these days is a result of so many patents being issued without due diligence by USPTO. It will be shown that you cannot steal invalid patents.
Or a poison pill of sorts. Google acquired about 19000 “unmotovated” employees with a very different corporate culture, and they make up about 40% of the new company. Good reason to keep them separate. Hopefully Google has been thinking innovative hardware in anticipation of this purchase with plans of how to implement. Of course, if a revitalized Moto cuts into HTC and Samsung, that don’t work so good either. I guess the thought is that the overall market is still growing so stepping on toes is minimal. However, there will come a day, maybe only a couple of years from now, when android phone manufacturers will start to feast on their own brothers.
I will pray for your soul.
Has anyone even evaluated the value of Motorola’s patents? Nope. I doubt they were as valuable as the Nortel patents. Unlike Google, the rest of the industry, including Apple and Microsoft, probably has already licensed most of these patents.
More to the point, if Google didn’t care about the Nortel patents they wouldn’t have taken to the blogs to bitch about how unfair the patent system is. Clearly they cared. Sorry that a consortium including, but not limited to, Apple and Microsoft outbid them.
Your celebration is premature at best. This patent portfolio will have no impact on the Oracle lawsuit, and it will have virtually no impact on Apple’s and Microsoft’s lawsuits against Android OEMs.
Hey Dan,
You were better as a fake someone else than a real you. You should retire your Dan Lyons name and pick another fake person to be… and you’ll start making more sense again.
I see that MG Siegler of TechCrunch completely schooled you and showed you what real journalism is all about.
http://parislemon.com/post/8964980217/rope-a-dope-indeed
You should quit writing because you suck so bad at it. Or maybe take some lessons.
http://parislemon.com/post/8964980217/rope-a-dope-indeed
I used two work at Moto and still know a lot of people there. They think Google bought them for the patents and will sell them off. They are probably right. Oh and Moto is the most dysfunctional by far of the large corporations I have worked for.
Good article Dan — and here is the double-whammy / rope-a-dope part II:
http://rurikbradbury.tumblr.com/post/8967439942/will-google-now-bid-for-nokia
Chad:
You are completely wrong. What Google did is make it possible for Android licensees to compete on manufacturing and cost while ensuring freedom to practice. Google will use Motorola to roll out “model” configurations. Samsung and HTC will act as fast followers, adopting what works. The entire ecosystem wins.
When did Apple or Microsoft “cry like bitches?” It seems to me that these companies are letting their actions do all the talking. It was Google who put out a note two weeks ago titled, “When patents attack Android.” Google is a monopoly with a persecution complex. And this particularly whiny note from SVP David Drummond reeks of insincerity. If IP warfare is petty, why is Google so active? They bid just enough to barely lose the Nortel auction, then went and spent a bunch on IBM patents, THEN chastised the rest of the field for using patent litigation. All this before closing a $12.5B deal based solely on IP.
Also, AppleSoft is going after OEMs, not Google…nevermind, Google is now an OEM. The only one directly attacking Android is Oracle, and this acquisition does nothing to help. Oracle is not in the smartphone business, so cross-licensing is not a valid chess move.
More importantly, put yourself in the shoes of the other OHA licensees, or a potential investor in GOOG shares. The company has spent the last month shouting from the Mountain(view)top that IP rights are a joke. The shouting was much more than a misdirection for Apple, regardless of what Dan Lyons says. Then they spend a huge chunk of their cash pile, justifying the move as defensive.
Should Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony Ericsson, ZTE, Huawei, etc. believe Google’s words or Google’s actions? Google should have never forced their partners to choose words/actions, let alone at a cost of $12.5 billion. As an investor, I’m staying away from any CEO who can’t give a straight message. I don’t care if Page is “a smart, hyper-competitive guy with a mean streak and a nasty sense of humor;” if he can’t tell it like it is, I’m not interested.
Today is by far the best day in the brief history of WP7, easily trumping their Nokia deal. Microsoft offers indemnity to its licensees already, so the Samsungs of the world know they won’t be jumping out of the pan into the fire when they go running from Android.
“Worst written article I have ever read.”
Don’t go in for this level of internet hyperbole. (Everyone knows that EVERY article on every site gets ‘worst article’ status. Oops – I may be giving into internet hyperbole myself, there.)
That said – Lyons really has nothing worth saying anymore. Followed a link here. Wouldn’t return.
Dan, your gradual loss of grip on reality and descent into madness (and obscurity) is fascinating to watch.
Wow. I haven’t read such terribly written revisionist history in a long time. Your hindsight isn’t even 20/20.
What is wrong with you, Dan Lyons? Have you not kept up with the daily news these past few months? And if not — which is the only reason I can suspect you think Google had any sort of master plan, much less foresight — why in the hell are you even writing on the topic?
I only have one question: are you making up this nonsense to be a dick, or are you actually delusional? Either way, check your facts before you go off on some half-cocked emotional agenda, since we can all see through the sham.
Wow a lot of conjecture for very little information. WHile Google got a big inch of patents it is not clear if this will help in any meaningful way with Android’s IP issues.
The Motorola patents do not cover much in the way of touch based interface and mobil computing. They will need to find areas that Apple and other infringe on their patents to be able to use them as leverage for a settlement with Apple. Apple had already has a suit against Motorola and they have a suit against Apple. The difference is there is clear historical precent that most of what Motorola has is part of the GSM patent pool. Apple’s is not.
More importantly Motorola is not a viable player int eh smartphone market, they have only made money in a few quarters of the past few years and are losing money along with market share. Their most successful modern period was when they were prime supplier to Verizon and they could not get the iPhone. SInce then not only is the iPhone available broadly but Samsung and HTC are killing them in the rase to the bottom Android handset market.
If Google uses Motorola to create a tight hardware / software / web ecosystem like apple they will kill off Android’s best attribute the wide support among OEM’s. If not then they wasted a lot of money or a shrinking handset design house (they don’t make anything just like Apple, where as Samsung and HTC at least keep their factories busy).
@Rurik Bradbury – you’re the biggest idiot on all these tech forums. You post your shit site to all of them. You’re just a moron google drone.
@Dan Lyons – I think you’re striving to become another John C. Dvorak.. another clueless troll who makes up controversial/troll stories to get hits on his site. It’s sad that you’ve picked a troll and a fool to follow.
LOL @ all the apple fanboy responses. Heated today are we?
You can always tell when something happens to shake their faith. They get angry. Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVAbr-af4-8&feature=related
I have no idea if you’re correct about google’s purchase of apple. Time will tell.
However, how can you continue to call mg an apple fanboy, while constantly kissing google’s ass? You are a fandroid and you also hate apple. You’re opinion is worthless, at least as long as you continue to try and portray others as coming from a biased view while you simply speak from truth.
Open your eyes.
Why so angry? I’m an iPhone owner. Also have a Nexus S, which I don’t love so much.
Any response?
http://parislemon.com/post/8964980217/rope-a-dope-indeed
whats hilarious is that Apple fanboy connoisseur MG Siegler posted his little rebuttal on G+ only to be laughed at by the entire G+ community in the comments section.
http://plus.google.com/107753428759636856492/posts/7bo4vGya75k?hl=en
http://parislemon.com/post/8964980217/rope-a-dope-indeed
Hahahaha… FAIL!!!!
http://parislemon.com/post/8964980217/rope-a-dope-indeed
Fandoid major loss. Look for Microsoft to be the big winner here, as Android puts the nail in its future…
hahah… even better, he is absolutely right – its just posting on a Fandroid site takes guts all those Android owners don’t have as they sit on their grandma’s old couch in their parents basement wondering just how to spin this latest Google fail as a positive.
Hilaarrrrious fail for Android today.
I’m sure Google had this in mind all along. See you at $300 per share in 3 months.
Nice comment. Good summary. You should write this blog.
Dan, you’re a gifted writer. Enlightening and entertaining. But this is… a stretch.
Still a fan,
Robert
Dan, is that really you? Sometimes you just have to let go of a losing cause. I realize that as a writer it’s hard to publicly admit a mistake, but others have done so, for far more embarrassing brouhahas, and been none the worse for wear.
US$12.5 billion for the crappy Motorola mobility vs Nortel deal, it is really difficult to tell which one is cheaper.
It should be “Le Chiffre” instead of “La Chiffre” (chiffre is a masculine word in French).
It should be “Le Chiffre” instead of “La Chiffre” (chiffre is masculine in French).
This deal didn’t JUST include the handsets. Motorola Mobility also includes the Set-Top-Box division. Combine this with google’s purchase of SageTV a couple months ago, and their founding membership in the AllVid alliance, and you can see that not only did they get a prominent hardware manufacturing line, they also have a clear doorway to re-making GoogleTV in a much more appropriate way, and finally getting into the living room.
Guys,
I think Dan’s vying for the title of the Troll Fool Champion of the World. He’s fighting the current champion of stupidest tech columns John C. Dvorak. Watch this site for Dan’s future fights for the title.
Wow…spoken like a true apple fantard.
Nothing about android is stolen. Despite what the Oracle idiots would have you believe the original owners of some of the IP Android is based gave their full approval.
Dan, you’re confusing ad hominem attacks, like what you’ve just done, with valid critiques of your, shall we say, fanciful and fallacious fairy tales.
How about a response to valid criticism, rather than replying to the first post by a 12 year old that contains “LOL” and “fanboy” and contains nothing of substance?
This all feels like horribly desperate writing.
P.S. You’re obsession with Apple is great, but I’d like you to get back to some astute and insightful coverage of SCO.
The great thing about you is that you’re demonstrably wrong about 99% of what comes out of your brain, yet you just keep on truckin’. What a trooper.
What if Moto is kept as an independent arm of Google, and what if Moto makes a couple of Windows Phone 7 items? Who would complain, and more importantly, it would confuse the heck out of all the other handset makers. The patents are the real reason for the purchase, but making handsets for a few more years with Windows or even WebOS would be awesome. Man does not live by Android alone.
To try acquire Nortel’s Patent Portfolio, Google bet pi billions. Motorola was close to 4pi biilons. Lol
Apparently Microsoft was bidding on motorola too, and this deal was bought and sold in under 5 weeks. For a multibillion dollar deal that smells of desperation. And I remind you that google itself said this deal was about patents. http://parislemon.com/post/8964980217/rope-a-dope-indeed
There are more Apple fankids on Dan Lyons’ site than any other Mac-related site. Hilarious.
I did think when they first announced the plans to acquire the Nortel IP on the official blog, that they were being too forthright about them.
Maybe that was planned all along, and if so it was a brilliant move, but it would have been even more brilliant to spend less on this.
My guess is that Google has the technology to sort out what are the valuable patent portfolio with all their search engine/algorithmic prowess
Seems like this article has been more or less invalidated across the entire internet.
Stop writing crap.
Hilarious indeed. I think Dan just hit a nerve. The reality is that since Page took over Google has taken the initiative.
What I can say for this childish analysis?
This was a great article considering it was written by a 12-year-old. This kid already has the vocabulary of an 8th grader! Impressive!
Typical of the mislead by buzz/hatred dominant opinion we can see around.
iOS and its terrestrial avatars will long survive this passing news. Apple is on a whole different plane, the king of its integrated business model. It can thrive in a minority position, has done this for 35 years.
Google is in a Microsoftisation process. Low added value. Sustainable by ubiquity. Google “Open” = MS “Standard”…
Its trajectory is to collide with its true master.
Motorola is to Google what Nokia is to Microsoft. Except Microsoft had the intelligence not to acquire the whole mess… Google was desperate. Motorola too. And the latter excited the appetite of the former, by first menacing to join the WinMo cronies, then to sue for patent royalties its Android siblings.
Ubiquity is their game. By definition, there is only one place around for that.
Apple, as usual, is just the small mammal under the ferns…
Fun to read you comments on the matter Dan but do you really think this was a smart move by Google?
How do you think Samsung and other Google partners are going to react after being stabbed in the back by their “partner”?
Google just grew by 60% by doing this purchase which means that 60% of Google has no idea what it’s doing as Google has ZERO experience in the manufacturing of hardware…
Trying to battle an established brand such as Apple bu buying Motorolla is probably not the best move and will probably not help Google on the Android market as it’ll not only be competing with Apple but now also with itself…
I really would like some of the dope you smoke.
The merger makes good sense economically. The break even is less than 4 years on Android patent defense alone. Look at the brand of your cable modem gateway its probably Motorola, and your setup box is Motorola or Cisco (Scientific Atlanta). Personally, I like Google TV concept, its implementation needs some cleanup. The phone is connected device to bring in more data for Google, just imagine what kind of data the set box, and cable modem will bring them. Why would you fear Apple, they are the “Nike” of technology. All their manufacturing is in China, gee that’s IP protection. Sounds like the most valuable in the company in the world. They also discontinued their OSX Server line. If “Radio” is the future (i.e. Celluar, and Wifi), this would be my play.
This makes things interesting for consumer and I’m, as a consumer, happy with the action.
There is bound to be shunting at Moto but do you think that many people will end up loosing their jobs?
Truly a rope-a-dope. If I was Apple and Cisco I would be nervous
The merger makes good sense economically. The break even is less than 4 years on Android patent defense alone. Look at the brand of your cable modem gateway its probably Motorola, and your setup box is Motorola or Cisco (Scientific Atlanta). Personally, I like Google TV concept, its implementation needs some cleanup. The phone is connected device to bring in more data for Google, just imagine what kind of data the set box, and cable modem will bring them. Why would you fear Apple, they are the “Nike” of technology. All their manufacturing is in China, gee that’s IP protection. Sounds like the most valuable in the company in the world. They also discontinued their OSX Server line. If “Radio” is the future (i.e. Celluar, and Wifi), this would be my play.
Dannyboy – you’re bitter.
MSNBC has not had you on for awhile – isn’t it time you primp your hair some more?
Google was offered a chance to join Microsoft in the Novell patent auction, not the Nortel one. /facepalm
“Ethical? HELL no. Good Business? Sure. ”
James what makes you think being unethical is good business. Strange idea of the meaning of the word good.
+Good+ as in ‘terrorists did a +good+ job scaring the hell out of the nation’, ‘the mafia are very +good+ businessmen in Southern Italy’, ‘the owner of the brothel made a +good+ profit’.
Google is still do no evil, yeah right guys save it for your ads on the Disney Channel.
I started to write a similar response… but..you’ve pretty much covered it. Spot on.
Don’t spike the football before you’re sure you’ve scored, Dan.
What a stupid article. Google didn’t do anything of the kind with the Nortel bid and YES, Google did put the Moto deal together after it lost the Nortel one.
Don’t be a frothing at the mouth hater.
Motorola is NOT profitable. The Droid 2 and 3 did not get any where near the reaction of the Droid 1 did. They lost 50+million last quarter and are projected to lose more this quarter. Reality check:Motorola has many problems google will have to deal with.
Yep. Pretty bad even for “bending over” Lyons. Gotta wonder how long he’ll stay on goog’s PR payroll.
“Today, with the Motorola deal, Google picks up nearly three times as many patents as AppleSoft got from Novell and Nortel.”
LOL! Yeah, for $12.7B, which is “nearly three times” as much money. So, your logic is that Google forced Rockstar to overpay, so what is Google’s excuse for overpaying?
“Better yet, Google got its rivals to spend a few weeks defending the practice of using patents to attack other companies.”
LOL! I didn’t realize Google was fighting against Apple fanboys!
“So now Google fires back, makes a huge acquisition, [2 years worth of Google profits] gets into the hardware business [it already was in the hardware business with the Nexus and it bought a hardware business losing money], buys up the best IP portfolio in the mobile space ["best"?!? And you know this based upon what?]”
According to Florian Mueller, the Motorola vs Apple lawsuits did not at all seem like they were going well for Motorola, as they were using FRAND patents, while Apple was using non-encumbered patents. So, Google’s $12.7B in patent insurance still might not protect them from litigation.
If you actually di some reporting, you would have found that Intel joined Googles consortium when bidding for the Nortel patents, so one of two things are true:
1) Google fucked Intel because they had no intention of winning the patents, they were just bidding ridiculous numbers to mess with competitiors. Google doesn’t give a fuck about partners.
2) Google got fucked and this is an over compensating deal that they’ll spend the next 2+ years trying to digest.
Either way you go Google is not the same company under Larry. Eric built a solid cash generating business, Larry is picking fights with everyone and fucking their partners, ask Logitech & Sony about GoogleTV, ask Intel about the failed Nortell bid, ask HTC and Samsung (off the record of course) about this deal.
Fuck me once shame on you, fuck me twice…
Jeez, everyone – Dan’s meaning is perfectly clear. Google fake-bidded (in awesome Punk’d-meets-Mathematics-style) for the Nortel/Novell patents in order to leave Apple and Microsoft all wrong-footed and out of pocket, while at the same time working behind the scenes to secure Motorola Mobility. They’re tactical geniuses. Larry Page is literally Sun Tzu. What’s that I hear you say? They’ve only been in talks with Motorola for five weeks, which is well after they lost out in the patent auction? Pfff. iFanboitards. Obviously it SEEMS that way to all of us, because GOOGLE HAVE INVENTED A TIME TRAVEL DEVICE. That’s right. And that’s how they’re going to solve the problem of Motorola’s actual products being sub-par and unprofitable, too. Just go back in time and switch signs on the Motorola and HTC HQs. Dan’s next post is going to be all about Google’s time machine. The title’s going to be: Apple Fanboys Think Apple Invented Time Machine But They’re Wrong, Oh How They’re Wrong. Look, face it, you all just don’t get it – every time it looks like Google messed up, they in fact totally intended to do that to make you think they weren’t on the ball and so close to cracking time travel. That will all change now. Tomorrow you’ll wake up and Google Buzz will be a thing, because they’d have gone back in time and made it a thing.
Good article, good to see someone take a different approach to this topic then a lot of the technorati apple obsessed press.
Sorry, if Android was built on “stolen (unlicensed) IP”, pretty much every other smartphone is, too. Omitting the rest of the truth won’t make your statement better.
KenC, lol. Google never went in the consumer hardware biz. They worked closely with HTC and Samsung for two devices, is all.
Check your facts before spewing nonsense.
hey dan,
in case you missed it, here again is a story from somebody who actually has sources and does research:
http://parislemon.com/post/8964980217/rope-a-dope-indeed
…not as fun as just opening your mouth and seeing what pours out of it, but hey, thats you.
But no one should be surprised at a post like this coming from Lyons. As I said, he’s been getting his ass handed to him time after time again over the past few years as a vocal Apple curmudgeon.
hey dan,
in case you missed it, here again is a story from somebody who actually has sources and does research:
http://parislemon.com/post/8964980217/rope-a-dope-indeed
…not as fun as just opening your mouth and seeing what pours out of it, but hey, thats you.
Gruber @daringfireball.net just handed Lyon’s hat to him.
This bold move by Google is not a sign of Google’s strength. Its actions are those of a cornered cat. Giving Android away to create a platform to collect advertising revenues is just not a great business model for Google. Despite Android’s marketshare gains, Apple is literally running away with the market when it comes to profits.
The fact is that Motorola Mobility is losing money. This is the problem with being an Android OEM: you compete with the other Android OEM’s and have unclear ability to differentiate yourself. So, you get crappy margins.
But, as Gruber points out, Motorola had one other card to play — patents — and it was threatening to use those patents AGAINST OTHER ANDROID OEMS. Google’s model was just about to get worse. With Microsoft looking to buy Motorola, Google had to act. The premium price is not due to Google’s strong position.
Google is now changing its business model by getting into the hardware business. That this is bad news for Samsung and HTC is abundantly clear. For PR reasons, Google HAS to play like this move was to protect all Android OEMs from patent lawsuits, but in the long run Google wants to have an Apple-like control over both hardware and software, and this can’t be good for the other OEMs.
A bold move, yes. Rope-a-dope? No. A validation of Apple’s approach over Google’s former business model? Absolutely.
holy mackeral. they’re just going to let 20k people GO? that’s not going to sit well in the tech industry…. what happened to “don’t be evil”?
I have a Motorola Xoom, and it is fantastic, hardware and software alike. What the heck do you mean by “stolen (unlicensed) IP”… IP is short for “internet protocol” and is prefixed to the term “IP address”, and has NOTHING to do with Android. Perhaps you mean that it is built on a linux kernel… well so is Mac OS X, so are like 7 of the 10 largest super computers, so is WebOS, etc…, etc…, and since it is “open source” it is hardly “theft” to make use of. You don’t know the first thing about the technology, clearly, so I assume you’re just an illiterate Trojan Apple fanboy who actually owns an iPad. Oh wait, you didn’t say you “owned” a Xoom, you said you “used” a Xoom… if that’s even true. You’re probably just an iPad user who knows deep down inside he got screwed by the lack of Adobe Flash support, external memory, and a variety of other shortcomings. The Xoom is the best high end tablet on the market… precisely BECAUSE it is a Google Experience Device, its software solely handled by the Android experts at Google and updated before any of the manufacturer-modified-Android devices like the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Transformer, or any other of the other Android tablet devices. It is also better by far than iPad, unless you’re like a surgeon or an architect or something and you need those freaky professional high end capabilities of iPad software, and is light years better than the WebOS or Blackberry Tablets (though the Blackberry one does have the best true tablet multitasking, at least for now).
You talk about Google being “anti-trust”, but in general the courts have not upheld such claims, just as they didn’t uphold the claim that Microsoft was being antitrust for bundling internet explorer… cross-promoting and integrating your own products into your own products is difficult to label “anti-trust”. I don’t see how promoting and integrating the Google search engine on an Android device is, for example, anymore constitutive of “anti-trust” than Apple promoting its mobile products with iTunes and in turn promoting iTunes, and the iStore, through its mobile products, or Microsoft promoting Internet Explorer and Windows and promoting the Bing search engine through internet explorer.
As far as “don’t be evil” goes… no corporation is perfect, but how many even TRY to not be evil? iTunes buried independent music stores… whereas Google, while competing on the ebook market, has also affiliated with indie bookstores to help them survive (whether they do or not is in their own hands now). Apple makes people pay booko bucks… or patiently wait for years until the price drops substantially… to buy their products, and is only making its iOS available on devices carried by a total of two cellular providers, while Google Android is on over 170 Android devices and is free and open source, helping the companies that make them survive against what would otherwise be an Apple-opoly, and even to compete directly with Google themselves in the future (as they move into hardware), and they don’t ban apps that promote competitors like Apple, while Apple bans some Google apps (Google Voice, for example, which they know they have no alternative for). How “anti-trust” is that? Apple is ranked one of the worst offenders of worker rights, and one of the least responsive in terms of compensation for harm and damages, in China… while Google, knowing it would benefit Apple, has limited the Chinese Government and refused to go along with their more extreme censorship efforts. It’s clear why Apple has no “don’t be evil” mantra… because it would be sheer lunacy. Apple used to say “Think Different”… now they say “Think Like a Communist”. Microsoft, meanwhile, isn’t even in the same galaxy, and Windows Phone 7 was and will remain an abysmal, Vista like failure, and Windows 8 doesn’t seem much more promising at this point and won’t even be available until next year… but you can be sure they’ll try to promote Bing over Google, Internet Explorer over Apple or Google browsers, they’ll probably ban many apps that promote the competition (specifically, any apps they can’t directly compete with, which are myriad), etc…, etc… So, whether you’re an Apple fanboy, or a Microsoft fanboy, or a fanboy of the new AppleSoft (which colluded to try to keep Google out of the mobile provider game, how anti-trust is that?), it’s clear you’re willing to overlook a myriad of evils and shortcomings in their competition to condemn Google, the only one of three that even TRIES not to be evil, and clearly the one of the three with the broadest expertise in technologies relevant to mobile computing.
Bahahaha. IP means intellectual property you fucking rube
Um, “…stolen (unlicensed) IP…” – really? So the courts have decided this because you said so? Time to take a step back from the hyperbole here Mikey and take a long look at the real innovation that Google is bringing to the table, even with a shattered and broken patent system like the US now owns.
Apples iPhone division makes more money than all of Google combined. Not sure how paying 3 times the amount for a company that will drag Google down is a very good way of saying Fuck you to Apple. Unless Google fires everyone at Motorola and closes the doors to those factories upon completion of the deal, watch Googles stock price take a steady dive as they struggle to make a merger like this work. My bet is we’re going to see 19,000 people become jobless overnight. Google wanted patents, nothing more. The firings and closure of Motorola Mobility will be considered colateral damage.
Well – this blog certainly proves that “adults” in the IT business on the net do act like children. Most of the comments above are clearly written by people with 0% knowledge of the markets in question.
Here’s the play –
http://mobilewirelessnews.com/2006/08/24/motorola-celebrates-10-years-of-manufacturing-in-brazil/
Motorola has 40 years+ of investment / involvement in Brazil. (1971 start) and 10+ years of heavy direct partnerships there.
Guess where Apple wanted to move its production to?
It is clear to this reader that underlying all of this IP wrangling is actually a concern for three things: stability of production, cheapness of production, and the fact that the West is no longer the market most are focusing on – BRIC being the golden goal for the next decade. [If you've not noticed - the USA, Europe and China are all in the throws of a currency / debt melt-down as we speak. It is highly likely that in the next 2-5 years there will be a massive correction of first world economies, in favor towards BRIC countries. If you've not noticed this, please go learn something.]
So, in this light, Google’s move makes a lot of sense. I doubt they’ll “dump” Motorola as a company – they might strip it down to production and remove non-BRIC elements, but the core they’ll keep.
Chew on this bone before dribbling further all.
Stolen IP? Are you out of your mind? Do you know anything about computer software? Most of android was written from scratch by the company Google bought it from. The kernel is linux, and … open source. Any components which Google wanted to distribute in a way they couldn’t (like BusyBox), they went out of their way to rewrite.
As for Java, Google didn’t use any of the code, they instead rewrote something similar – with Sun’s blessing.
Oracle’s playing a dirty game now hoping they can get something for nothing. Software patents are bad for programmers, bad for the industry, and bad for progress.
Well, that depends on what parts of the patent pie went with MotoMo when the original Motorola was split. Motorola made all kinds of silicon, including CPU’s and a few computers in its time too and Mr Ellison has a hardware business now that could be ripe for the suing. I wonder how many SPARC’s infringe on Motorola patents?
Microsoft are NOT being investigated for antitrust – Microsoft WON their antitrust suit against the US government. Nor are Apple – how can you be ‘investigated for antitrust’ when you have just 10% of the domestic market and 2% of the global market, FFS? Jeez!
What a load of utter crap. It’s Google who are being investigated for antitrust. Stop writing/thinking this dilussional claptrap.
‘with Sun’s blessing’. Let’s see how that stands up in court. Nutter.
You’re an idiot if you think Android was built upon stolen code. It’s actually quite pathetic that you’ve been so brainwashed. I’m assuming you’re an Apple fanboy. Now, go back to mowing the grass, iSheep.
Great piece, Dan.
I never read Tech Crunch any more because of MG’s prejudiced views of the world. I’m surprised that anyone actually reads that blog any more. AOL made a huge mistake in buying it. Sorry for the MG and Tech Crunch hate, but once upon a time, I actually thought that Tech Crunch was a decent resource for news, analysis and insight. I just can’t go there anymore and fortunately I don’t have to since there is so much good coverage of the tech and wireless world.
My, what a pathetic little Mircosoft fanboy. Microsoft is a convicted monopolist. They were also convicted of using stolen code.
Looking forward to the Andrazr phone.
SENT FROM YOUR IPHONE
Are you kidding?
What’s google gonna do? put a PPC G4 behind Android. Wow! What a platform!
Google was not offered a place in the Nortel patent consortium. They received an offer from Microsoft to go in on the Novell patents.
I do believe Android Phone Market Growth renders all these fagot CrApple lover and Microsoft FUD Mongers (Embrace Extend Extinguish) tactics meaningless. Like Android OS itself, Google loves playing games with the competition’s Minds (or lack thereof)! Android sales render their arguments Null and Void I’d say and Dan, you are so right both Google and Motorola are playing them all with Ali’s “Rope a Dope” fighting style. So here’s why I believe this isn’t just about 24,000 patents owned by Motorola. Here’s the net assets of Moto that none of these idiots are taking into account! haha….
Revenue US $22.044 billion (2009)[4]
Total assets US $25.603 billion (2009)[4]
So in reality, since these numbers are before Moto sold record numbers of Android Smartphones. Anybody in their right mind can see that Google got a bargain. Without even just counting the massive Patent Portfolio! lol…. those are HARD ASSETs alone and in reality closer to what they should have actually gotten on the open market.
Like if Apple sold today, their Total Net ASSET value certainly wouldn’t be no asininely ridiculously over valued $334 Billion to match their Market Cap. So really…. you’d be talking Real Value in the neighborhood of $70 Billion Total Net Assets. Considering anybody in their right would be looking closer at hard and soft asset value, than a bunch of inflated hyperbole filled future earnings minus all the Cash that keeps finding it’s way back into their Market Cap equation. When in reality no one ever sells Cash for Cash! ….even in the legitimate Market Cap equation, debt and cash are deductions in lock stock and barrel purchase. But being CrApple filled with Ultimate RDF (Reality Distortion Field) iFacts, they get away with making out like Market Cap is their actual value. Instead of just some Disneyland Dream Corporate hogwash shareholder wishful thinking!
If Moto wanted or needed to (as if having one losing year constitutes them ever being a loser), they have that $25+ Billion in hard assets to sell off with the Soft Asset patents! Honestly I think Google and Motorola are just playing all you haters for the Chumps, played out in your good old “Rope a Dope” Scenario that’s most likely been in the works for a long time!
To make sure their plans for acquisition by Google didn’t hit any bumps they played off Moto losses like it was major, knowing too that along with that Breakup Fee, no other bidders would even bother bidding. The Moto acquisition will most likely go down in history as one of Google’s wisest purchases next to Android!
There is a difference when it comes to Larry. While Apple, Microsoft and others want to kill Android, Larry wants android to be a huge success and dominate the smartphone market, and he just wants his cut from every handset made and sold. He does not play for the team you think he is on.
“… because they are not the best anymore”? What world are you living on? Microsoft and Apple are both the best in their respective business, and the ones that make higher profit…
“just their patent”? Com’on… Did you seriously say that? 12.5 billion just for IP? So what now? They are going to fire 19k employees and shut the factories down?
Wake up from your daydream…
Having used an Asus Transformer with different hardware, but the same OS, I can attest that the problem with the Xoom is the hardware, not the software.
Do you have any evidence, other than Oracle’s unfounded assertions that Android is built on stolen IP?
Uh oh, looks like Google’s SEC filings of the Merger & Aquisition disprove your theory. Not that too many people believed you in the first place.
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