Mountain View, Calif. – The European Commission on Monday approved Mountain View-based Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Illinois-based handset-maker Motorola Mobility.
The deal, first announced in August, would give Google the hardware to go along with its popular Android smartphone operating system.
In its ruling, the antitrust body said the acquisition “would not significantly modify the market situation in respect of operating systems and patents for these devices.”
“This is an important milestone in the approval process and it moves us closer to closing the deal,” wrote Don Harrison, Google’s vice president and deputy general counsel in a blog post. “We are now just waiting for decisions from a few other jurisdictions before we can close this transaction.”
Also on Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it has closed its investigation of this acquisition.
This article was also published in Bay Area Tech Wire.
Related links:
European Commission press release – http://tinyurl.com/7y98gg3
Google’s blog post – http://tinyurl.com/7243k6z
Department of Justice press release – http://tinyurl.com/76568df
