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FTC investigates Google Motorola deal

by on29 September 2011


Smell of anti-trust
Federal antitrust regulators have asked Google for more information about its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Google is buying the outfit as a defence against Apple and Microsoft patent law suits, however  in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Motorola said it received a request for "additional information and documentary material" from the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division.

According to Reuters, Motorola said Google also received a similar request and repeated its expectation the deal would close by the end of 2011 or early 2012. Writing in his bog, Google Senior Vice President Dennis Woodside said the DOJ's "second request" was "pretty routine" and there was nothing to see here, move on please. Google usually gets a note from the FTC even if it buys lunch for a client.  A similar one appeared when it bought  ITA Software.

He said that close scrutiny is part of the process and we've been talking to the U.S. Department of Justice over the past few weeks. Microsoft and Apple are hoping that the FTC will wade into Google and forbid the deal.  Motorola's patents are a trump card which could be used against them if they challenge Google in a patent court. But Google is attracting more attention from the FTC and the EU which  are both investigating Google's business practices. We would have thought that it would have been extra careful not to do something that would get it into hot water.

Woodside said that while the Motorola deal will take a bit of time because of the DOJ's interest, he would was confident that the regulators will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile ecosystem will remain highly competitive after this deal closes.
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