Motorola's Identity Crisis 135
An anonymous reader writes "An article at the NY Times discusses the awkwardness of Google's recent purchase of Motorola Mobility, an acquisition widely thought to be motivated by Android patent concerns rather than a more straightforward business plan. From the article: 'While industry analysts and insiders say the rationale makes sense, they also say it leaves Motorola in an unusual position. ... Heightening the uncertainty is that the companies involved, both of which declined to comment, are in some ways as different as two technology companies can be. Google makes Internet services and software, thrives on high profit margins and distributes its product using giant data centers. Motorola makes hardware, has modest margins on a good day and moves its products on trucks and airplanes and through brick-and-mortar stores. ... "It's like, thanks for everything you did in the 20th century, but you're being bought by a search engine," said Roger Entner, a telecommunications industry analyst and founder of Recon Analytics, a market research firm. He added, "Nobody ever buys a company and leaves it alone."'"
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The only linked article is behind a login screen, which makes this post pretty useless since I suspect very few of us will bother to register.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Both cases kinda piss me off to be honest.
The whole situation pisses me off. It's nothing specific against google. It's that companies are being bought not for their product, or customer base, or innovations, or capabilities.. but effectively for legal ammo to sue the shit out of other companies/protect themselves from being sued. The actual products (you know, the whole point of all this.. or what used to be the point) can atrophy and die for all anyone cares.. as long as they get their IP!
I know this isn't news to anyone at this point, but the whole damn system is broken.