Google acquires Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion

Google has announced its going to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion ($40 per share). The Mountain View-based company plans to use Motorola rich patent portfolio to help its Android platform in the numerous legal battles it's currently fighting, while Motorola itself should continue to function as before.

The first thing that should be noted is Motorola Mobility is not the entire Motorola. You might remember that the company split in two in January 2010 - Motorola Solution and Motorola Mobility.

So, Google is buying Motorola mobile division responsible for smartphones and tablets. The reson for the move is quite simple to defend Android in the ongoing patent war.

A few days ago Google explained that Microsoft, Apple and other corporations are working together to acquire important patents before Google so they can get licensing fees of up to $15 from the manufacturers for each Android device sold.

So, now that Google owns Motorola it is in a much better position to offer assistance to its partners in their court struggles. After all, Motorola is one of the companies with the largest patent portfolios in business and we are led to believe the whole Android community will have access to it once the deal is done.