The Cell Phone Junkie

Nine months after it began the process, Google closed Tuesday on the acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $40 per share in cash, or about $12.5 billion. According to Google:

The acquisition will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

No word yet on how the transaction will effect employees, or the day to day product innovation by Motorola.

Press Release:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – May 22, 2012 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that the acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) has closed, with Google acquiring MMI for $40.00 per share in cash.

The acquisition will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Sanjay Jha, who revived Motorola’s Mobile Devices business and led the company through this acquisition, has stepped down as CEO, although he will continue to work with Google to help ensure a smooth transition.

Dennis Woodside, who has overseen integration planning for the acquisition and previously served as President of Google’s Americas region, has become CEO of Motorola Mobility.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “I’m happy to announce the deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation. It’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and I’m confident that the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.

“Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing a big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. I would like to thank him for his efforts and am tremendously pleased that he will be working to ensure a smooth transition as long-time Googler Dennis Woodside takes over as CEO of Motorola Mobility.

“I’ve known Dennis for nearly a decade, and he’s been phenomenal at building teams and delivering on some of Google’s biggest bets. Dennis has always been a committed partner to our customers and I know he will be an outstanding leader of Motorola–and he’s already off to great start with some very strong new hires for the Motorola team.”

Dennis Woodside, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said: “Motorola literally invented the entire mobile industry with the first-ever commercial cell phone in 1983. Thirty years later, mobile devices are at the center of the computing revolution.

“Our aim is simple: to focus Motorola Mobility’s remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world.”

Dennis Woodside has hired a small number of leaders who will immediately join Motorola’s executive team, including Regina Dugan (former Director of DARPA), Mark Randall (former supply chain VP at Amazon and previously at Nokia), Vanessa Wittman (former CFO of Marsh & McLennan), Scott Sullivan (former head of HR at Visa and NVIDIA), and Gary Briggs (former Google VP of Consumer Marketing). In addition to these new leaders, many members of Motorola Mobility’s team will continue in their current roles: Iqbal Arshad (Product Development), Marshall Brown (Chief of Staff), Fei Liu (Mass Market Products), Dan Moloney (Home), Scott Offer (General Counsel), Mark Shockley (Sales), Mahesh Veerina (Software & Enterprise) and Jim Wicks (Consumer Experience Design).

Woodside added: “Motorola Mobility has many outstanding leaders, including people who were behind the original RAZR in 2004 and recent successes like the Droid and RAZR MAXX. Our colleagues joining the team come from varied backgrounds, from DARPA to Amazon and NVIDIA, but they all share a track record of leading innovation at speed, and a great deal of excitement about the mission ahead.”

As they do each quarter, Fierce Wireless analyzed the numbers from Strategy Analytics and posted charts on the top carriers in the US for the previous quarter.  In Q1 2012, Verizon remained in the top spot with 109.8 million subscribers, edging out AT&T’s 103.9 million.  Both saw healthy growth with Verizon adding just over a million customers, and AT&T adding ¾ of a million.  Keeping the third spot, Sprint added 1.1 million users, bringing them to 55.8 million.  T-Mobile finished fourth with a gain of 187k, finishing at 33.4 million.  Rounding out the top 8 include Clearwire at 11 million, Metro PCS at 9.5 million, Leap Wireless at 6.2 million, and US Cellular at 5.8 million. Slots 9 through 12 belonged to C Spire, ATN, Cincinnati Bell, and Ntelos, each with under a million subscribers.

Source: Fierce Wireless

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Virgin Mobile’s payLo service received a price drop on Monday. A new plan offers unlimited voice and text along with 50MB of data for $40 per month. The plan works with feature phones only. payLo also offers 1500 minutes/messages along with 30MB of data for $0 per month, or 400 minutes for $20.

Source: Sprint and payLo via Phonescoop

US cable companies Bright House, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner announced Monday they’d partnered on a nationwide hotspot network. Dubbed “CableWiFi, the network of 50,000 hotspots is currently operating in New York City, LA, Philadelphia, Tampa and Orlando. A roll out to locations across the country will occur in the next few months. The network is geared to meet mobile data demands, offsetting cellular data where possible. No word on a rollout schedule or pricing, if any, for use of the service.

Source: BusinessWire via The Verge

Chinese regulators Saturday approved the proposed acquisition of Motorola by Google. The deal, announced in August of 2011, has Google picking up Motorola for $12.5 billion. The China approval was the last, following the US, European Union and others to finalize the deal. All parties expect closure to occur within the week.

Source: Android Central