Google is having a pretty good day. Their $12.5 billion deal to purchase Motorola has been given a thumbs up by the US Department of Justice. The US DoJ gave the OK on the deal just a few hours after the European Commission announced their approval.
Google still has a few steps left to take until the deal to purchase Motorola is finalized, but with both the US DoJ and European Commission giving blessings for the deal, it definitely sets things down the right path. Google still needs to wait on China, Taiwan, and Israel for approval.
The DoJ's Antitrust Division was the group that conducted the investigation and that group ruled that the deal was “not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics” or “substantially lessen competition.” While that sounds very positive, the DoJ will still be keeping tabs on Google, as will the European Commission, to watch out for patent abuse.
Reuters reported that the DoJ “would not hesitate to take enforcement action” in a situation where Google manipulated the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs) to their own advantage. SEPs are patents that are essential for companies to meet industry standards.
Google is gaining access to 17,000 patents via this Motorola deal, so the US DoJ and European Commission are going to be on the lookout for situations in which Motorola's SEPs are manipulated by Google to give them an advantage in the market. Google has a lot of ammunition here to set licensing costs in a way that is unfair to competitors. Google will have to be very careful not to make that mistake.
It's likely that the last few countries who need to give a thumbs up on this deal will be issuing concerns very similar to what the US DoJ and European Commission have already laid out. Google is probably not going to have trouble getting this deal done but they will definitely be watched very closely moving forward.
