Google to close Motorola Mobility deal by Wednesday
Thanks to China finally giving its stamp of approval, Motorola Mobility says its acquisition by Google can now close.
Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility will finally close by Wednesday.
Motorola Mobility announced in a Form-8K filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission that now that the Bureau of the Ministry of the Commerce of China has cleared Google's acquisition, the companies will finalize the transaction "within two business days."
China announced on Saturday that it had approved the acquisition, making it the last major regulator to give the deal the green light. Both the U.S. Justice Department and European Union regulators approved the acquisition in February.
Google announced plans to acquire Motorola Mobility in August for $12.5 billion, representing a 63 percent premium on Motorola's stock price. Although regulators approved the deal relatively quickly, many were concerned that Google could hurt competition in the marketplace because it would be acquiring one of the top Android users.
In response, just about every prominent Google executive attempted to allay those fears. David Drummond, the search company's chief legal officer, led the charge, saying that the acquisition would still leave Google "in a very good position to protect the Android ecosystem for all of our partners." Soon after the acquisition was announced, Google CEO Larry Page said his company will remain neutral among all Android vendors.
"Many hardware partners have contributed to Android's success and we look forward to continuing our work with all of them on an equal basis to deliver outstanding user experiences," Page said during a conference call in August. "We built Android as an open-source platform and it will stay that way."
Despite those reassurances, Google was still met with some questions. In fact, according to a CNET source with knowledge of the China approval, the country's regulators made Google assure them that it would keep Android free and open for five years, so Motorola's competitors would not suffer after the acquisition.
Both Google's and Motorola's shares today are trading up 1.88 percent and 1.94 percent, respectively.
Update 7:48 a.m. PT to include more details.