EU approves Google's $12.5-bn Motorola takover

European Union competition regulators approved on Monday the $12.5-billion takeover of Motorola Mobility by Google, judging the move unlikely to impact on the market for smartphone operating systems. "We have approved the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google because, upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues," said Joaquin Almunia, the EU's anti-trust commissioner. An investigation centred on whether Google might make it harder for big-selling handset manufacturers such as Samsung or HTC to use the operating system Google developed, Android. "It is unlikely that Google would restrict the use of Android solely to Motorola, a minor player in the European Economic Area (EEA)," the Commission concluded. The Commission said that Google "already had many ways in which to incentivise customers to take up its services and that the acquisition of Motorola would not materially change this."