Google announced (http://investor.google.com/releases/2011/0815.html) this morning that it will be acquiring Motorola Mobility for about $12.5 Billion, which represents a share price for MMI which is about 60% higher than Friday's close (read: if you own Motorola Mobility stock, you just made a good amount of money).

I'm not sure what I think about this move, but my first reaction would be that it's probably good for Google. It has cash to burn and this opens up a new revenue stream that has a strong nexus with something it's already doing. If it can improve Motorola Mobility's performance, this could represent a way to further monetize the popular Android platform. Motorola Mobility's performance of late hasn't been all that great though - it's been losing money. Xoom sales have been disappointing and smart phone sells haven't been spectacular.

It will be interesting to see how other Android-based handset manufacturers respond to this development. If I were, e.g., Samsung, HTC or LG, I don't know that I'd be thrilled with the idea that Google will be getting into the handset manufacturing business in such a big way. All of a sudden the company that controls the platform on which so many of their mobile devices are based, is their competitor with regard to those mobile devices.

I see that ylexot has already opened a thread (http://forums.somd.com/computers-technology-internet/231578-google-acquiring-motorola-mobility.html#post4639749) about this news, so I'll close this thread.