Booster05

Google “married” Motorola – or bought it, if you’re not a romantic about these things – in 2011 for $12.5bn. Some beautiful “children” – the Moto X and Moto G – followed. The G in particular is incredibly well built and powerful for its price, breaking more of the conventions around budget phones than many would like to admit.   But barely three years on, they’ve divorced and unusually it’s the poorer partner that’s had to pay up, in the form of Moto’s patents.   When the 2011 deal went through, it was the single largest acquisition Google had ever made. Yet take a look at Motorola at the time and you’d have been forgiven for raising an eyebrow. Okay so the glamorous but slightly worn bride had numerous patents – the heavy artillery of the current tech corporate war and a guaranteed high-margin money-spinner for years to come – and $3 million in the bank for a dowry, but clearly all was not well with the company that once put StarTACs and Razrs in pockets all over the world.   For all

Google “married” Motorola – or bought it, if you’re not a romantic about these things – in 2011 for $12.5bn. Some beautiful “children” – the Moto X and Moto G – followed. The G in particular is incredibly well built and powerful for its price, breaking more of the conventions around budget phones than many would like to admit.   But barely three years on, they’ve divorced and unusually it’s the poorer partner that’s had to pay up, in the form of Moto’s patents.   When the 2011 deal went through, it was the single largest acquisition Google had ever made. Yet take a look at Motorola at the time and you’d have been forgiven for raising an eyebrow. Okay so the glamorous but slightly worn bride had numerous patents – the heavy artillery of the current tech corporate war and a guaranteed high-margin money-spinner for years to come – and $3 million in the bank for a dowry, but clearly all was not well with the company that once put StarTACs and Razrs in pockets all over the world.   For all