Now that Google has gotten permission from China's Anti-Monopoly Bureau to acquire Motorola Mobility, the companies are expected to complete their merger by the middle of this week.
In an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Motorola said that because China's Ministry of Commerce had cleared the merger over the weekend, "the companies are moving to close the transaction within two business days."
ANALYSIS: Google lashes out at patent trolls with Motorola buy
BACKGROUND: Google, Motorola officially get hitched
The Google-Motorola Mobility merger, which was approved earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Justice, will strengthen Google's smartphone technology patent portfolio and help it more effectively combat lawsuits against Android device manufacturers filed by rivals Apple and Microsoft. In all, Google is paying $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility and its 24,500 patents.
The Motorola buy represents Google's second major attempt to boost its IP portfolio against patent suits. The company also made a bid for patents formerly held by Nortel that was thwarted by an industry consortium that included Microsoft, Apple and Research in Motion and that bid a total of $4.5 billion for the Nortel patents. Google had bid a total of $900 million for the rights to the Nortel patents. In all, the Nortel portfolio contains more than 6,000 patents that cover technologies such as 4G wireless, data networking and voice.
While announcing his company's decision to buy Motorola Mobility last year, Google CEO Larry Page said that the deal would help fight off patent suits against Android vendors and would "increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio." Google's Motorola announcement came less than two weeks after the company publicly lashed out at Microsoft, Apple and Oracle for allegedly waging "a hostile, organized campaign against Android ... waged through bogus patents."
Brad Reed covers both Google and the wireless industry for Network World. Be sure to check out his blog, Google Reed-er, and follow him on Twitter at @bwreednww.
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