Google and Motorola Mobility Holdings announced today that the internet giant will be acquiring Motorola Mobility for approximately $12.5 billion.
“This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences.”
Page said that the acquisition would help to protect Android from recent “anti-competitive patent attacks” coming from competitors such as Apple and Microsoft.
The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors for both companies. It is expected to close by the end of 2011, or early 2012, and is subject to the usual conditions for such an acquisition such as regulatory approvals from the U.S, European Union, and others and the approval of stockholders.
Page’s remarks on the acquisition can be found at the official Google blog, and for more details check the press release.