Nokia CEO issues warning over Google’s Motorola acquisition

Google purchased Motorola this week for $12.5 billion. No one saw it coming but Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop, has gone on record and voiced his concerns about the buy-out.

The news comes via Reuters, which reports that ‘Google's plan to buy Motorola for $12.5 billion has generated some analyst concern about whether Motorola will get preferential treatment over rivals Samsung and HTC. Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop said these concerns may be justified.’

Speaking at a Helsinki seminar, Elop said: ‘If I happened to be someone who was an Android manufacturer or an operator, or anyone with a stake in that environment, I would be picking up my phone and calling certain executives at Google and say 'I see signs of danger ahead.’

He added: ‘The very first reaction I had was very clearly the importance of the third ecosystem and the importance of the partnership (Nokia/Microsoft) that we announced on February 11, it is more clear than ever before.’

Google’s official stance on the Motorola acquisition is that it will solidify and protect the Android ecosystem by giving Google’s engineers and developers access to Motorola’s 17,000 registered patents.

Elop’s concerns seem to be falling on deaf ears at the moment though with Samsung, LG and HTC all officially confirming their support for the move on Google’s official Android blog:

‘We welcome the news of today’s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem’ – Peter Chou, CEO, HTC

‘I welcome Google’s commitment to defending Android and its partners’ – Bert Nordberg, President & CEO, Sony Ericsson

‘We welcome Google’s commitment to defending Android and its partners’ – Jong-Seok Park, Ph.D, President & CEO, LG

‘We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem – J.K. Shin, President, Samsung, Mobile Communications Division

Our 2p? We can see the logic in Google’s move. Sure it’s bold and very expensive but the return on investment should be huge – can you imagine what Google’s people could do with those 17,000 patents? Expect to see lots of innovation coming to Android very soon.

Here’s Google’s CEO, Larry Page, on why Google acquired Motorola:

‘We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction.’

‘Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.’

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