Cloud Computing: Google Closes Motorola Mobility Acquisition
May 22, 2012
Google said first thing Tuesday morning that it’s closed on its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.
It’s been waiting nine months to clinch the deal and get its hands on Motorola’s patent portfolio. It finally got Chinese approval over the weekend albeit with conditions.
Motorola Mobility will be run as a separate business.
Google’s first move was to put its own boy in to run the joint. MMI CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down replaced by Dennis Woodside, who has overseen integration planning for the acquisition and previously served as president of Google’s Americas region. Jha is supposed to continue working with Google to ensure a smooth transition…
Woodside has hired a swat of new executives, including Regina Dugan (former director of DARPA), Mark Randall (former supply chain VP at Amazon and previously at Nokia), Vanessa Wittman (former CFO of Marsh & McLennan), Scott Sullivan (former head of HR at Visa and Nvidia), and Gary Briggs (former Google VP of consumer marketing).
Remaining on in their existing jobs are Iqbal Arshad (product development), Marshall Brown (chief of staff), Fei Liu (mass market products), Dan Moloney (home), Scott Offer (general counsel), Mark Shockley (sales), Mahesh Veerina (software & enterprise) and Jim Wicks (consumer experience design).
In a statement Woodside said, "Our aim is simple: to focus Motorola Mobility’s remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world."
Woodside is credited with driving Google revenue from $10.8 billion to $17.5 billion in under three years. The acquisition has raised concerns that Google’s profit margins will be impacted.
In its announcement Google said the acquisition will enable it to "supercharge the Android ecosystem." In keeping with the assurances given the Chinese Google said Android will remain open. It’s also supposed to remain free-of-charge for five years but Google said nothing about that.