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Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Motorola was the coolest phone on the planet back a decade or so ago. The “brick” phone was a marvel of modern technology and marked you as a superstar. I saw my first one back in the ‘80’s, complete with a monstrous battery pack. I owned the fat brick and then the slimmer brick and was considered cool and groovy, as indeed I was. Upwardly mobile, I had power breakfasts where I prayed for the phone to ring so I could pose.

When Motorola came out with the “flip” phone, and I could be cool, groovy, and Captain Kirk I couldn’t be happier. When the flip phone diminished in size I was the first to have one in West Perth, despite the obvious problem of posing with such a small phone.

Nokia then came on with their myriad of models, speaking to the younger set with style, elegance, and price performance.

Suddenly, appearing from stage left was Steve Jobs, with the phone that changed the world forever. You see, what we want, but didn’t know we wanted it until we became tired of the endless fiddle to tailor our phones by ring, picture, and music, was the ability to personalise our phone easily. As yet, not one of the companies has come out with the simple idea of plugging your phone in to a PC, and with a click of a mouse button, back up, share, add ring tones, text, MMS, wallpaper-all the things we CAN do with most phones, but only after a really big fiddle. Then drop it and try to back up the lot successfully to your replacement phone. Oh yes, it CAN be done, but have you managed it with a few clicks? Not me.

Google Press Release –

“MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. & LIBERTYVILLE, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

“Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

The rest of it is the usual blah blah from the Gods, saying nothing at all.

Motorola in its day had the most powerful team of software developers, deployed all over the world, with some fantastic ideas that they could never quite get to market. Ditto Nokia but they weren’t as fat and bloated in the executive area as Motorola was-and it killed them. Nokia, on the other hand achieved world dominance, and made the perfect phone in the 6310i, which marked their nadir.

We all love to hate market leaders. The small spark of independence grows impatient with being told things like how much I should pay for apps, how we can’t share this or do that or use Adobe. Android intends to beak the model of I phone dominance and good luck to them too. Google don’t know what they are going to do with Motorola, but then they rarely do know what they are planning to do, and wouldn’t tell you if they did because it would undermine their Importance.

Android still, to a large part, nestles on the sweaty bosoms of the geek and tech community, who love to get their sticky fingers in and jail break it (bless ‘em, to a large extent its open source anyway, but don’t tell them). It’s less expensive than the Iphone, and a little more “home boy”, with a sprig of Anarchy.

So, Google, show us your wuzzer. I want my Google phone to work with the galaxy of Google stuff. I want BIG BUTTONS because, like der, most of us baby boomers need glasses. . Give me the option. Give my nephew the option to have a zillion tiny icons on his screen, and the ability to kill Demons with Mohammed in Malaga. I want to know how much charge, money I have spent, and where my wife is so I can um greet her, and where the hell I left my car in that stupid car park?

I want to be cool and groovy again when I do find my car. Oh, by the way, make a phone that doesn’t need a protective cover, and spray on self cleaning nanites. Sorted?

If memory serves, ABB was short for Asea Brown Boveri, which isn’t a hot winter broth. They are an electrical power control flashy company and have been around since 1988, and despite being based in Zurich, have done very well. (Research note-ask the editor about confiscated duty-free in Zurich later)

Engine Ears

Peter Ustinov once stated that “Assets” are small female donkeys. Therefore Asset management software designed by MINCOM in Brisbane, Australia may well be a different type of creature, and thus a takeover target for ABB, which happened in May 2011 for many millions of dollars.  Well done to the founders of Mincom, who sold in 2007 to Francisco Partners for $315 Million dollars.  Its all about the large pulsing vein that is the mining industry in Australia-the ROW (rest-of-world, an American term I’ll adopt here) wants a part of our assets, you see, because we have very nice rocks here.  How the Swiss integrate MINCOM with Ventyx will be aswers with, thank heavens, many thousands of lines of code by some busy programmers.

Locally Peter Christie (no relation) is no donkey as MINCOM’s Business Development manager and loves Swiss Chocolate.