School technology buyers will be watching to see how Google’s $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola’s mobile technology unit affects the market for mobile devices.
If approved by federal regulators, the deal announced Aug. 15 gives Google control over a key manufacturer of devices that run on its open-source Android operating system.
But the big prize isn’t Motorola’s lineup of cell phones and computer tablets, analysts say: It’s Motorola’s more than 17,000 patents—a crucial weapon in an intellectual arms race with Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle to gain more control over the increasingly lucrative mobile device market.…Read More