14 DAY TRIAL // Google's bold move to acquire Motorola Mobility is being put on hold for a while longer as anti-trust government regulators have issued a "second request" to Google, asking for more information in reviewing the proposed acquisition.
What this means is that Google will have to wait a while longer before it can actually close the deal, provided, of course, that the government approves it.
"We know that close scrutiny is part of the process and we've been talking to the U.S. Department of Justice over the past few weeks," Dennis Woodside, SVP at Google, wrote.
"Today we received what is called a 'second request,' which means that the DOJ is asking for more information so that they can continue to review the deal," he said.
Google says that this kind of request is pretty standard. It has received similar requests before.
Indeed, large deals like this more often than not receive more attention from regulators, since they need more time to cover all aspects and determine whether the deal is a threat to competition or whether it hurts consumer interests.
The request doesn't necessarily mean that the government is looking to block the deal.
Google is still very confident that the deal will go through. Then again, what else could the company say. The fact that it has to pay Motorola $2.5 billion, 1.83 billion Euro, if the deal doesn't go through, is either a testament to Google's confidence or its desperation when moving to buy the phone maker.
It's been in similar situations before, even worse actually, as its acquisition of AdMeld, an advertising company, as well as its acquisition of ITA Software, a flight data and software provider, were held up for months.
They were eventually approved. But those deals were much smaller than the Motorola one, Google's largest acquisition to date.
"While this means we won't be closing right away, we're confident that the DOJ will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile ecosystem will remain highly competitive after this deal closes. We'll be working closely and cooperatively with them as they continue their review. "