Google finally closes Motorola deal, brings in new CEO

Last year Google announced that it had acquired Motorola Mobility for “a total of about US$12.5-billion”. The deal had punters speculating about whether it was the cellular company’s technology or patents that were more important to the internet giant. Moreover it was also left open for months after the initial announcement.

In an an official blog post Google co-Founder and CEO Larry Page confirmed that the deal had finally gone through:

…our Motorola Mobility deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone. We all remember Motorola’s StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. And as a company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google.

Motorola Mobility is the handset sub-division of Motorola, which spun-off from its parent company last year and has been trading as an independent company.

According to Page, current Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha has stepped down and Googler Dennis Woodside will take over as CEO of the company.

Page says that Woodside’s first job at Google was to build the company’s businesses across the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. Woodside, he says, also “recently helped increase our revenue in the US from US$10.8-billion to US$17.5-billion in under three years as President of the Americas region.”

The acquisition has been referred to by analysts as a “gamechanger” in the mobile world as Google — like Apple — moves to being a handset manufacturer and not just an operating system provider.

Page doesn’t mention a name change to the newly acquired company but it has been fondly dubbed Googarola.

It’s a well-known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short-term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound — as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone. That’s why it’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I’m confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.