Google to cough up $2.5 billion if Motorola deal falls through

Business

Google has agreed to pay Motorola Mobility $2.5 billion if its planned acquisition of the cell phone vendor fails to close, Bloomberg claims. The report cites an anonymous source as having revealed the figure, which Bloomberg says is more than six times the typical breakup fee for such deals. Google announced on Monday that it plans to acquire Android smartphone and tablet vendor Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. While the proposed deal would give Google complete control over future Android device experiences, it would also add approximately 25,000 patents to the tech giant’s portfolio as it prepares to do battle with the likes of Apple and Microsoft. These patents are seemingly so important to Google that it is willing to part with a massive sum should its acquisition fail to get necessary approval. “A high reverse breakup fee shows the buyer’s confidence of getting the deal done,” Donna Hitscherich, a senior lecturer in finance at Columbia Business School, told Bloomberg. “People don’t do deals to get the breakup fee, they do them to get the deals done.”

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23 Comments
  • Your Mom

    That’s the face you just want to fire.

    • Anonymous

      but ears that say “i can fly”

  • Anonymous

    What is “the only way MMI could make $2.5 billion,” Alex. I’ll take “best deal Motorola ever made” for $1000.”

  • Anonymous

    If only they had partnered with consortium to acquire Nortel’s patents…

    • Anonymous

      If they partnered with the consortium, all the vendors would be forced into paying a licensing fee to the consortium.

  • Anonymous

    So, to recap:

    Apple and Microsoft each paid approx $2B in the Nortel auction and Google publicly talks about how those companies are paying wild, reckless sums to control patents. Google, on the other hand, offers a $2.5B break-up payment to Moto in case the $12.5B purchase doesn’t pass muster the Feds.

    Got it, thanks.

    • Rob Meyer

      Looking back, Apple and Microsoft each paid approx $2b for nortel, and go sue happy towards everyone over infringement. Even samsung, a major supplier in apples components gets it up the backside. So as the sue/suck fest grows, google sees the only way to defend itself against FRIVOLOUS lawsuits is to acquire a company with a large enough patent collection to defray legal attacks from apple and its posse of legal g00ns. God I hate to come off as a fan boy, but there’s something so negative and almost childish about how apples tactics and strategies are affecting the mobile market.

      • Anonymous

        It isn’t frivolous when some company is using your technology without paying for it.

        I think Larry Ellison is making that point to Google pretty strongly right now, and the smoking gun emails which show Google willingly violated Sun/Oracle’s patents in order to not have to re-code Android or pay additional fees speaks volumes.

  • Anonymous

    This high breakup fee shows absolute desperation on the part of the buyer.  20% breakup fee?  There’s only one winner there, and it ain’t Google.

    • Anonymous

      Google has God on its side so Google never loses.  Google doesn’t do evil! Period!

  • Wirelessmodz

    Why would this not pass the feds ? Shows google is sure it will happen with this high breakup fee imho

    • Anonymous

      Why wouldn’t it pass the Feds? Maybe the many anti-trust investigations ongoing with the Feds and various states might have something to do with it? Google is thisclose to having an extensive proctological exam by the Feds, the level of detail not seen since Microsoft was bent over the table a decade ago.

      As to the breakup fee, Moto will have its business disrupted during the merger, as they will be required to produce reams of papers for months to come as various agencies dig into them as well as Google. The fee is to compensate the company when/if the merger is denied .

      • Booboolala2000

        With your logic Apple shouldn’t be able to produce the iphone.

      • Anonymous

        Why don’t you try again, only this time, attempt to make sense.

        Apple isn’t the subject of any antitrust investigations by the Federal government, nor are they any state AGs running their own investigations. The question posed had to do with the OP asking why the proposed purchase wouldn’t sail through regulatory waters, as if the breakup fee was a symbol of Google’s assurance that it was a done deal. The reply pointed out that Moto has a lot to lose if this doesn’t go through and that the investigation sure to come from the regulatory process will cost Moto money, hence the breakup fee would help cover their losses if the deal is killed–it would be a necessity to get Moto to join Google in this effort.

        None of the above has anything to do with the iPhone. Knee-jerk bashing of Apple and Android is really, really tiresome.

  • Anonymous

    Google is amazing.

    • Bullyboyb

      Yeah, amazingly stupid….

      • http://twitter.com/RicoBawse rico black

        how does this make Google stupid. they’re winning more then just patents. moto is a company that make consumer products.

      • Geokaplan

        So are a lot of companies. A lot of consumer products companies make a profit when their business year is completed. Motorola Mobility isn’t one of those companies, unfortunately.

        Google also paid 2X what Google made in profit in 2009, which is an enormous premium, not to mention that Moto has been circling the drain for quite some time. The price paid doesn’t square with the benefits (patents plus hardware company) received. How much do you suppose it would have cost Google to simply license the Moto patents? Much, much less than $12.5B, even less than the $2.5B breakup fee. They didn’t need to buy Moto outright (unless Moto forced their corporate hand and made them buy the company, lest Moto sue HTC, Samsung and the rest for patent violations).Yes, yes, I know Google has money in the bank. That’s not the point. This is like you spending $60,000 to buy a 2005 Kia Spectra, just because you have the funds to spend. It is possible, but it isn’t really very smart.

  • Anonymous

    Larry Page was the guy behind Android’s purchase in the first place, he got them in the spectrum frequency auction and into the Nortel patent auction, now, instead of buyng a portfolio of 8K patents for around 2B, he buys Moto for 12B.

    Google isn’t in it for the patents, they’re in it to build handsets.  I was going to say “eventually build handsets” but the truth is they will already be building handsets, LOL.

    • Klaus

      Motorola controls 17,000 patents with an additional 7,000 on the way worldwide. They’re most definitely in this for the patents. 

    • Geokaplan

      Now, back to reality:

      Page bid $Pi billion, so he bid over $3 billion for the Nortel patents. Google bid more than what was ultimately paid by either Microsoft or Apple in the Nortel bidding.

      As to the reason, don’t kid yourself: While Google couldn’t afford for Microsoft to buy Moto Mobility (as they are rumored to have been informally negotiating), but it wasn’t so Google could produce more butt-ugly Droid handsets. Becoming a handset manufacturer only complicates the relationships Google has with HTC, LG, Samsung, SonyEricsson, and other Android manufacturers.

      It was for the access to the intellectual property held by Motorola.

      There is no other primary reason.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5HSF7K6WH3MOY3WOLI6C52M3LM Lily Rice

    I just paìd $22.85 for an ìPad 2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.78 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $625 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, CentHub.còm

  • Anonymous

    Must be nice to have sacks of cash lying around.

    http://www.real-privacy.au.tc

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