14 DAY TRIAL // The outcome of the Google / Motorola Mobility merger has been put on hold for quite a while pending approval from various regulators. The last to give its approval was China who has recently given the green light and approved the transaction.
However, it’s been said that this has been achieved at some cost, as Chinese regulators demanded that Android stays free and open source for other manufacturers for the next 5 years.
As soon as Google agreed with Chinese's regulators terms, Motorola announced that “as the transaction has now received all required regulatory approvals, the companies are moving to close the transaction within two business days.”
According to the latest hearsay, Google and Motorola would be able to close the $12.5 billion merger on Tuesday or Wednesday, and it appears that these rumors have been confirmed by today’s statements issued by both companies.
Dennis Woodside, who was appointed by Google to oversee the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, has hired his own team that will soon 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).
Google also confirmed that some of the current executive staff will continue in their 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).
Unfortunately, there are rumors running around that Google is about to lay off about 30% of Motorola Mobility employees, which is about 6,000 people. However, this has yet to be officially confirmed by Google. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.