Report: Justice Department to approve Motorola deal, as early as next week

Jake Smith | Feb 8 2012 - 8:04 pm PT

In a new report from the Wall Street Journal this evening, the publication said the Justice Department is set to approve Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility as early as next week. This approval will give Google a good size push in to completing the acquisition.

The U.S. Justice Department is poised to clear Google Inc.’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter, giving Google a powerful armory of technology patents to deploy in the smartphone wars.

However, antitrust enforcers in the U.S. and Europe remain concerned about Google’s commitment to license Motorola patents to competitors on fair terms, those people said, and will closely monitor Google’s use of the patents. The European Commission has set a Monday deadline to decide whether to approve the acquisition.

Google is set to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, and it is doing so to primarily add Motorola’s large array of patents to its arsenal. Google is currently working to get approvals in Europe, too. A new report surfaced yesterday claiming that Google was going to send letters to European groups in order to smooth over the approval process. We will keep you updated.