Well, just when you thought Google’s acquisition of Motorola was a done deal, think again. It turns out China needs a little more time to look at the transaction, which is a process it puts all companies through who make millions and billions of dollars (yuan in this case) both in its country and from abroad.
By now everyone knows the importance of this deal, as the search giant looks to take control over Motorola’s trove of patents (with 17,000 already in existence and applications for a further 7,500), to better protect itself and its partners from being litigated in some weird patent lawsuit. Whenever the deal actually goes through Google could use Motorola to push its own range of Android devices that it could sell in countries like China, which is a good thing considering there’s like a billion people there.
That said, I think it’s weak for China to hold up a deal that seems to have the general consensus from almost every major industrial country. This kind of delay can only suggest that the country is using its leverage to get Google’s search engine back in the mainland of Hong Kong. Lets be real, China is going to sign off on the acquisition, as Google’s mobile operating system is too popular in its country with nearly 60 percent market share.
[via TC]