Motorola talks about the company's relationship with Google

Why did Google pay $12.5 billion to get Motorola Mobility? it has been nearly 2 years since the deal was declared and shut to a full year since it closed, and therefore the queries keep pile up whereas the answers keep obtaining worse.

The biggest downside is that Motorola's patent portfolio does not seem to be value something near what either company assumed: the decide within the Microsoft v. Motorola patent case dominated yesterday that Redmond owes a paltry $1.7 million in annual royalties for mistreatment Motorola's standards-related Wi-Fi and video-encoding patents in each Xbox 360 and Windows seven computer sold-out, instead of the $4 billion Motorola had originally demanded.

To put that in perspective, it'd take three,235 years for Microsoft's royalties to pay off Google's $5.5 billion valuation of Motorola's patent portfolio.

"THEY'RE 0-FOR-MOTOROLA."

"These rulings show that the portfolio is not nearly as valuable as Google thought it had been," aforesaid a supply near the difficulty, UN agency distinguished that Motorola has lost different cases round the world on patents associated with standards moreover. "They're 0-for-Motorola."

That's a big blow to Google's interest in mistreatment Motorola's patent portfolio as a action against Associate in Nursing increasingly-litigious Apple. With the worth of Motorola's patents currently returning into focus, the whole implosion of a previous suit against Apple, and increasing domestic and international pressure against mistreatment standards-related patents to dam competitive product, it isn't unreasonable to mention that any patent-related edges to the acquisition have nonexistent. Google might have wished to shop for a bulwark against future Apple lawsuits, however it terminated up with a reasonably anemic patent-licensing business instead.

And that patent-licensing business definitely is not enough to offset quarter when quarter of losses as Motorola's current product fail to contend against sturdy devices from Apple, Samsung, and HTC. Google has repeatedly aforesaid that it transmitted Associate in Nursing 18-month pipeline of product from the corporate that it has to flush out — business executive St. Patrick Pichette went to this point in Feb on say that current Motorola phones just like the Droid RAZR Maxx HD are not "wow" by Google's standards, however that the corporate is building "the next wave of innovation and products lines." within the meanwhile, Motorola has lost over a billion greenbacks since being nonheritable, ordered off nearly thirty p.c of its manpower, and had its cable box unit shredded off and sold-out to Arris for $2 billion amidst rumors that Google was troubled to seek out a vendee.

"ANDY STOOD BEHIND THE DEAL AND THOUGHT it had been necessary TO GOOGLE."

Motorola's struggles might have even vie a job in Andy Rubin's departure from Android: Rubin sponsored the acquisition inside Google, and sources say that he went to this point on vet Motorola's future roadmap and personnel. "Andy stood behind the deal and thought it had been necessary to Google," one supply with deep ties to the mobile business told The Verge." As [new Motorola CEO] Dennis Woodside began to scrutinize the small print, he could not see what Andy purportedly saw, that additional a lot of fuel to the hearth to oust him."

"We nonheritable Motorola to level the taking part in field in patent attacks against automaton and draw on Motorola's long history of innovation," a Google advocate told The Verge. "In slightly below a year they've accomplished plenty, with spectacular speed and execution. We're excited concerning Motorola's future." A Motorola advocate declined to comment.

That future currently lies ahead — it's on Woodside to bring Motorola back to relevancy, each inside Google and therefore the larger market. Rumors of a brand new "X Phone" have circulated since December, Google chairman Eric Schmidt has secure "phenomenal" devices that square measure "phones-plus," and Motorola style chief Jim Wicks told computer Magazine earlier this month that the corporate is functioning on devices that run stock automaton and square measure "just the right" size. Larry Page, for his half, has emphasised sturdiness.

NEW PHONES cannot be MOTOROLA'S solely CONTRIBUTION TO GOOGLE

But new phones cannot be Motorola's solely contribution to Google — the company's Nexus program already permits the automaton team to make high-end reference devices, and getting into a full-throated competition with automaton market leader Samsung would possibly more impact a relationship that is already seeing the Korean company relegate Google's package to second place behind a thick veneer of Samsung software package and services. Samsung dominates the mobile market during a approach that no different company save Apple has managed to realize — there isn't any apparent reason Google would risk cut that relationship simply to enter a cutthroat hardware business that needs equally complicated carrier relationships merely for the sake of it.