Google finalizes Motorola Mobility deal, appoints new CEO

It took a little over a year but Google is now owner of Motorola Mobility, and around 17,000 mobile patents. Motorola Mobility's CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down in favor of Google's own Dennis Woodside.

Google received the needed approval from both the European Union and the US Department of Justice, and the Chinese authorities.

The new CEO will bring a lot of fresh blood to Motorola Mobility - people that have worked at Amazon, Nokia, Visa, Nvidia and Google itself. We're yet to see how Google plans to operate the company, but chances are little will change there and Motorola Mobility will continue to operate as before.

Motorola's other branch - Motorola Solution is not part of the deal and will remain an independent company.

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China approves Google and Motorola Mobility merger

Three months following US and EU approval, China has given Google's Motorola acquisition the green light.

Now that all of the regulatory red tape has been removed, Google say that the deal will be finalized on their end by early next week. Such a quick timeframe indicates that this was indeed the last barrier that Google needed to overcome in order to finalize things, having already received joint approval from the European Union and US Department of Justice back in February.

The $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility is said to give Google access to close to 17,000 mobile patents, which should give them ample ammunition in the legal battles they are currently embroiled in with Apple.

One condition that China stipulated in its approval was for Google to guarantee free access to the Android operating system for at least the next five years, although we hardly see them charging for it anytime in the near future.

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