Regulators of the European Union have temporarily put Google’s acquisition of Motorola on hold. The review was put on hold in the 6th of December. They are requesting for more information on the deal.
European Commission spokesperson, Amelia Torres, said that once “certain documents that are essential to its evaluation of the transaction” are shown, the review can continue.
Al Verney, Google’s spokesperson said that this is “routine….. We’re confident the commission will conclude that this acquisition is good for competition and we’ll be working closely and cooperatively with them as they continue their review.”
Although routine, the result is the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google to be pushed back until 2012 at least.
When news broke out that Google was purchasing Motorola for $12.5 billion, Android manufacturers were worried Motorola would be favored by Google over other manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC. Since Motorola would become a hardware arm of Google, some believed that Google would roll out updates to devices such as the Motorola Razr before devices like the Samsung Galaxy S2 and HTC Sensation XE.
Google’s Larry Page said, “Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.”
Do you think Google’s acquisition of Motorola has been temporarily put on hold, or do you think Google will never get hold of Motorola’s patents? Give us your thoughts.
