So because an MS employee comes out and states they invited Google to join... you believe it. I doubt it was as cleanly an offer as it was presented by MS. Meanwhile... who is suing anything under the sun regarding the other companies properties and partners?

oh sure...showing evidence from googles lawyers that they refused to join must all just be made up and google isnt doing anything about the lies because they such nice guys that they just dont want to sink to microsofts level.   what a fantasy world you live in.

Made sense for google not to join MS and Apple for Nortel. They need patents they can use to counter sure...they wouldn't get that with Nortel if MS and Apple co-own the same patents.

Google PR is trying to establish this move as the purchase of defensive patents to protect against the "conspiracy" of lawsuits from Microsoft, Apple and Oracle, but it seems like that's really oversimplifying things.

1. Google could have simply bought the rights to litigate with Motorola's patents without buying the company outright. For some reason, Google spent a ton of money and bought a hardware manufacturer which has been circling the drain since people got bored of the RAZR.

2. It's not clear how effective Motorola's patents will be in protecting Android. Motorola is already embroiled in a legal battle with both Microsoft and Apple, and Oracle doesn't make cell phones at all, so these patents will be no help there.

3. This is the really juicy one. Motorola has been making threats about keeping itself in the black by going on a litigation rampage... against other Android vendors.

So it looks like the reason why Google is willing to buy Motorola outright for a 60% premium might actually be to protect Android from Motorola. Certainly, having a pile of patents which might come in handy against other mobile competitors won't hurt, but it looks to me like the management of Motorola knew they had Google over a barrel, so they took them for all they were worth.

It's a big risk for Google trying to be both a platform vendor and vertically integrated phone vendor. Eventually, they're going to have to choose between keeping their new hardware division, or keeping their other licensees. This is a big opportunity for Microsoft.

And What about the relationship of Microsoft and Nokia?

It's not as close as the new relationship between Motorola and Google. If all other things were equal, as an OEM looking for a software platform, I'd pick MS and push hard for a deal as good as the one Nokia got.

But it's interesting that both attempts to provide a modular software platform solution for smartphones seem to be under pressure to turn into an integrated hardware/software solution, isn't it?

Great post.

I agree that this is a big opportunity for Microsoft. I've been playing with the official Mango update on my Optimus 7 which was leaked 3 days ago. I must say that the product they will have when the update goes live is very competitive feature wise, and very slick and snappy to use.

This google/motorola deal combined with the fact that MS have pretty much caught up to competition in terms of features within a year and done it themselves in a controlled environment, without leaving a single handset behind could be enough to convince rest of the OEMs to give MS more hardware attention.

Afterall, paying MS 10 dollars for a OS licensing fee isn't so bad if MS does all the work for you in terms of keeping the device features up to date... 

Now that Google's got a patent arsenal too, MS will have to compete using actual product quality, instead of litigations and threats, so the biggest opportunity is for users, Android will get stronger and Windows Phone will need to be better. And Apple won't be able to bully them. Pity for Symbian, though, with its decline the rise of Android just restores the previous level of competition, it can't actually increase it (not Google's fault anyway, but Nokia's).

Google just announced that it is acquiring Motorola Mobility . The search and online advertising company is buying the company for approximately $12.5 billion (or $40 per share), in cash. The price represents a premium of 63 percent to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares last Friday. Google had about $39 billion in cash at last count.iPhone 5 Release Date

there have been no law suits over linux for the same reason no one has managed to sue Apple for selling a shell for the Unix operating system as Mac OSX