EU Commission and U.S. Department of Justice approves Google's acquisition of Motorola

According to the official Google blog, Don Harrison, Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at Google, an important milestone in the approval process was made today. Both the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice has approved Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

In August 2011, Google made an offer for the North American maker of Android smartphones and tablets, accessories and feature phones. Motorola shareholders approved Google's USD 12.5 billion bid for the company back in November last year, and we have since then been waiting for the EU and U.S to make a decision. There are still a few decisions from other jurisdictions to wait for before the deal can be finalized, but Google did not elaborate which these could be.

The transaction is Google's biggest ever. Motorola is far from the largest smartphones manufacture, but the company possesses a large number of patents which they license to other mobile phone manufactures. Many think the large patent portfolio was the major reason why Google wanted Motorola.

The fact that Google now will compete with Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony and the others by making hardware for the Android OS is possible something these handset makes are worried about. Google tries to comfort them by claiming that Google's vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform. After the transaction is completed, one thing Google could do is to work closer with Motorola than with the other makers. Google has earlier said that Motorola will exist as a separate company and not gain advantages just because it is owned by Google.

What do you think? Will Motorola receive inside info and other advantage from Google that none of the other manufactures will see?

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