Google Buys Motorola Mobility

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Hot on the heels of killing their own hardware, Google announced this morning that they are buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion. Created by splitting their hardware manufacturing business off from their other operations, Motorola Mobility was started last year to build and market the Motorola Devices, including the Droid and the Xoom.

Google's share price has dropped 3% on this news, but Motorola's has risen 60%. What does this say for other hardware manufacturers out there, and even more important what does this indicate in terms of the current litigation underway between Apple and Motorola in Germany?

Wall Street seems to think that the move is actually less about hardware than it is about IP. With the purchase Google also acquires Motorola's huge patent portfolio. In light of the litigation already going on with Apple going after Samsung, Motorola and the rest could this be leading to a quid-pro-quo effort by Google to protect the Android platform?

Should make for an interesting couple of months!

source - (CNN)