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Posted 04/30/2013 at 6:45am | by J.R. Bookwalter
Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility certainly got the attention of the tech world last year, but a new report claims the $12.4 billion purchase may be giving the search giant nothing but trouble.
Bloomberg reported Monday that Google may now be experiencing buyer's remorse over last year's purchase of Motorola Mobility, the hardware company it purchased last year in a $12.4 billion deal.
With more than 17,000 patents to its name, the Motorola buy was widely viewed as a way for Google to fight back against disputes aimed at its mobile Android platform. Instead, the search giant has found itself on the losing end of numerous patent battles that have yet to bear any financial fruit.
According to regulatory filings, Motorola's purchase price included $5.5 billion for "patents and developed technology," an investment that has yet to pay off for Google.
“It wasn’t an irrational decision at the time but they’ve gotten nothing but heartbreak for that money,” remarked patent attorney Rodney Sweetland. “Should they have bought? Not at that price.”
The acquisition also has yet to produce anything significant in terms of hardware, as Google works through Motorola's existing road map of Android handsets -- most of which have been met with far less lust than the latest smartphones from partners Samsung and HTC.
“Motorola has a great set of assets,” Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said in February. “It had a pipeline of products that were fine, but not really to the standards that Google would say is wow, innovative, transformative. So you invest for the long term.”
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