Google set the markets abuzz when it announced acquiring Motorola Mobility for cool $12 billion. And now industry experts are
shredding the deal apart to see if Google has made wise move. First off, experts were worried about the deal's impact on Google's Android associates. With the acquisition, Google had more or less presented itself as a direct competitor to its erstwhile Android companions. However, most of Android licensees reiterated their allegiance to the platform and it looks like that Google is not going to suffer any major loss on that account.
However, Google still seemed to have made some optimistic calculations. So far, the consensus opinion is that the acquisition has mainly been made with the view of augmenting Google's patent cache. Even Android licensees have clearly stated that they visualize the deal as a “move to protect the software from legal attacks and not a competitive threat in the marketplace.
In an interview with Bloomberg West, industry expert Dr. David Martin, branded the acquisition as "an immense mistake". He claimed that Motorola has a very weak patent portfolio. According to him, after selling key MPEG patents to GE and offloading Freescale patents, Motorola is left with only 'crap' patents.
Incidentally, Nokia's chief of patent licensing, Paul Melin also holds similar views. In an interview with a Finnish magazine, he said that the acquisition is not likely to help Google in its patent war with Microsoft and Apple. Google and Motorola have not issued any statement in this regard.