The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the sale of Google owned Motorola Home set-top business to Arris Group for $2.35 billion. The approval removes all regulatory hurdles that stalled the deal until now.
The department’s approval was announced Friday, and the deal is expected to close by Wednesday.
Google inherited the set-top box unit when it purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion last year. The unit wasn’t Google’s top priority in the deal, and the unit also failed to add significant value to the Google TV initiative. Added to that, Motorola Home brought patent infringement lawsuits from TiVo over digital video recorders.
The deal with Arris Group will lessen Google’s burden on the TV business side. As per the deal, about 7,000 employees will transfer to Arris. Google has also agreed to cap any liability Arris might face if Motorola Home is found to have violated patents owned by TiVo. However, that won’t deprive Arris from owning patents of Motorola’s set-top unit.
Under the terms of the deal, Google will receive $2.05 billion in cash and $300 million in newly issued stock. This stock will give Google a 15.7 percent ownership in Arris after the closure of the deal.
Source: CNET
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