Motorola Shareholders Overwhelmingly Approve Google Deal

Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility is stepping further toward finalization with the shareholder vote on the topic. Shareholders who voted supported the Google merger almost unanimously, with 99 percent approving the deal.

While Google made its unsolicited bid on Motorola back in August, that was just the first of several steps to finalizing the deal. It was announced in October that a special shareholder vote would be held on November 17.

That vote has now happened. While every shareholder who held stock as of October 11 was given a voice, not all shareholders took advantage of the opportunity. However, a large majority – about 74 percent – of company share was represented. Among those that voted, less than 1 percent voted against the merger.

While this vote would, under normal circumstances, mean that the deal is ready to move forward, this major acquisition is likely to be the subject of antitrust scrutiny. In much the same way that the Google-ITA deal took over a year to get final approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Google is likely to face additional requirements from the U.S. government prior to getting full access to the resources of Motorola.

It’s also possible that the U.S. Department of Justice will simply block the deal. There is an established history of blocking mergers in the U.S. telecommunications industry; the DoJ prevented the T-Mobile-AT&T merger earlier this year, and some of the same anti-competitive risks may be seen in Google’s partnership.

Google’s bid on Motorola was, according to an August statement from Google, designed to “enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem” and compile a patent portfolio that would work as a shield against intellectual property lawsuits from Apple, Microsoft, and other competing groups.

Do you think the deal crosses any lines? How much trouble do you foresee in the future for this merger? How helpful will Motorola be for Google, and vice versa? Leave your thoughts in the comments, below.