The European Union has restarted the clock on its antitrust review of Google’s proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which was announced last August and received Motorola stockholder approval in November. European Union’s antitrust authorities have also set a Feb. 13 deadline for completing its review of the deal.
Last month, the European Commission put a temporary hold on its antitrust review of the deal in order to obtain more information from the two companies. A Google spokesperson characterized the pause as “routine” and said in December that the search-engine giant remained confident the EC will conclude that this acquisition is good for competition.
“We’ll be working closely and cooperatively with them as they continue their review,” Google’s spokesperson said.
Motorola’s smartphones have not succeeded in gaining significant traction in European Union member states to date, which suggests that if the EC does decide to approve Google’s bid for Motorola the deal would not have any direct impact on European wireless network operators — at least not right away.
“I do not think operators there are particularly concerned about this,” said Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi in an e-mail Thursday. “But they are concerned about Google overall and this will be one more thing that Google will have to influence consumers.”
Other Hurdles
In the long run, however, other analysts based in the region believe that European carriers are concerned about Google’s plans for Motorola. “The acquisition is seen as a threat by mobile operators in Europe,” said Francisco Jeronimo, IDC’s research manager for European mobile devices.
European carriers are concerned they might “become even more dependent” on Google’s offerings, Jeronimo said in a Thursday email. Not only are they worried about the Android platform itself, he noted, but also about the hardware “if Google manages to boost Motorola’s brand in Europe.”
Even if…
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