Yesterday Google received final approval to purchase the Motorola Mobility Group which was has been held up by China. The purchase will cost Google 12.5 billion dollars. It is likely that the deal can close as early as this week. According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese antitrust regulators only green-lighted the deal this weekend under the condition that Google continues to make the Android OS widely available to all Smartphone makers – not just Motorola – over the next five years.
Google owning a mobile device manufacturer and being the developer of the Android Operating System puts them in the same unique position that apple has enjoyed for many years. It will be interesting to watch how Google’s relationship with other mobile device manufactures change over the next few years.
