Some of the biggest news for this past Monday included a deal made between internet giant Google, Inc. and communications company Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. As Google’s largest purchase to date (for those unfamiliar with Google’s gobbling philosophy, check out Google acquisitions,) this purchase seems a direct move to compete with the popularity of the iPhone and iPad tablet computers.
Motorola builds many phones utilizing the Android operating system, which just happens to belong to Google. They manufacture smartphones based on the Android OS, as well as the Motorola Zoom tablet computer that also runs on the software. One recent release, the Motorola Atrix, is an Android smartphone that snaps into a computer lapdock to become a fully functional computer.
For $12.5 billion dollars, the deal seems aimed at competing with Apple by giving Google its own hardware production facilities and business. The Board of Directors at both companies approved the purchase, and it looks like Motorola investors did quite well in this deal.
It is expected that Motorola will be kept running as a totally separate business for the time being, and Android will remain available as it is now for other manufacturers to use. In fact, Android is run on an open platform and is available free of charge to anyone who wants to use it.
Google’s CEO, Larry Page had great things to say about the acquisition and the Android ecosystem. With Motorola’s lengthy history of communications, including being the first manufacturer of a portable and mobile phone in 1980, it was also one of the first vendors to embrace the Android OS.
There are many reasons for Google to be interested in Motorola, and the combined company should be able to implement changes and enhancements quickly. There are already many new things in the works, and we can only expect that pace to increase.
Now that most people access Twitter and Facebook by using their smartphones, the Android OS will gain even more popularity. Facebook reports that people who log on via their smartphones spend twice as much time on the site as those who are non-mobile.
Google Wallet is an innovation that was just launched in a limited version, and is a direct hit on PayPal. For their part, PayPal already is in litigation because some former key employees left and took along some of the company’s trade secrets to Google months ago. The mobile payment system interface is supposedly simple, and superior to PayPal.
Google Offers is the company’s location-based deal offers, in much the same vein as Groupon and Living Social. Complementing Google Places with local deals and offers gives more value to consumers and businesses.
Google Places has helped to boost small businesses, and Google recently enhanced the functionality by letting users create a free mobile landing page. This easily utilized platform works for almost anyone, and requires no special skills or HTML knowledge. It also enables integration of Facebook and Twitter and traffic analytics for business.
Though this purchase will likely garner some concern because of the dominance of Google and the size of Motorola, Google expects the purchase to pass muster and be completed by the end of the year. This surprise move by the internet giant shows how the traditional and mobile internet platforms are colliding, and how blurred the lines are now.
Denise Gabbard writes often about small business, branding and online work.
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Hunter
September 25, 2011 at 8:00 am
Whoa, Google’s really at it.
jorge
September 26, 2011 at 10:48 am
Does google want to dominate or what?
Kayla
September 27, 2011 at 12:57 am
What will they do next? Google and Apple seem to be taking over the world! Wonder if they will ever join forces?
kevin
September 27, 2011 at 12:57 pm
I wonder what they’ll do when they get on top.. 😀
DeniseGabbard
September 27, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Though it is hard for us to imagine Google having a serious competitor, a year ago no one would have said anyone could worry Facebook– and five years before that, MySpace was THE social media site! Things change rapidly in cyberspace— eventually a company will come along, and grow to the size, where it can give Google a serious run for the money!
Danny
September 29, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Google is really spreading out like a virus.
I am afraid they will become too powerful.
They are already taking over so many niches, because we are for a part dependant on Google and they can just take over our spot whenever they want.
joe
September 30, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Denise has a great point.. it seems like google is just doing what it should do to just ensure it’s position..
Denise Gabbard
October 4, 2011 at 6:07 am
They are growing like crazy— I saw a graph today that shows they are poised to knock off Firefox as the Number 2 Browser with Google Chrome…
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20114278-264/chrome-could-unseat-firefox-as-no-2-browser/?tag=mncol;title
Drake
December 3, 2013 at 7:26 am
Google is very smart to get opportunity for businesses market, I’m optimism Google will go run flash.