Google acquires Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion

Google has announced it's going to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion ($40 per share). The Mountain View-based company plans to use Motorola's rich patent portfolio to help its Android platform in the numerous legal battles it's currently fighting, while Motorola itself should continue to function as before.

The first thing that should be noted is Motorola Mobility is not the entire Motorola. You might remember that the company split in two in January 2010 - Motorola Solution (being the direct successor of Motorola) and Motorola Mobility (a spin-off company handling the mobile devices business).

So, Google is buying Motorola's mobile division responsible for smartphones and tablets. The reason for the move is quite simple - to defend Android in the ongoing patent war.

A few days ago Google explained that Microsoft, Apple and other corporations are working together to acquire important patents before Google so they can get licensing fees of up to $15 from the manufacturers for each Android device sold.

So, now that Google owns Motorola (or it will when all the formalities are over) it is in a much better position to offer assistance to its partners in their court struggles. After all, Motorola is one of the companies with the largest patent portfolios in business and we are led to believe the whole Android community will have access to it once the deal is done.

Google does not plan a merger and will run Motorola as a completely separate business. Android will remain the same - an open platform available for anyone who wants to use it and Motorola will continue to be one of the many Android licensees. Let's hope that this will at least lead to speeding up of the Android updates for the Motorola's Droid lineup.

The leaders of all the other major Android manufacturers already expressed their support for the acquisition. The CEOs of LG, Sony Ericsson and HTC as well as the president of the Samsung mobile division already welcomed Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.