Google has completed its $12.5 billion purchase of device maker Motorola Mobility in a deal that poses new challenges for the Internet’s most powerful company as it tries to shape the future of mobile computing.
The deal closed Tuesday, nine months after Google Inc. disclosed that it wanted to expand into the hardware business with the most expensive and riskiest acquisition in its 14-year history.
The purchase pushes Google deeper into the cellphone business, a market it entered four years ago with the debut of its Android software, now the chief challenger to Apple Inc.’s iPhones.
In Motorola, Google gets a cellphone pioneer that has struggled in recent years. Motorola has not produced a mass-market hit since it introduced the Razr cellphone in 2005. Once the number two cellphone maker, Motorola now ranks eighth with 2 percent of the worldwide market share, according to Gartner.
As had been expected, Google chief executive Larry Page immediately named one of his top lieutenants, Dennis Woodside, as Motorola’s chief executive. He replaces Sanjay Jha, 49, who will stay on just long enough to assist in the ownership change.
Woodside, 43, has spent the past three years immersed in online advertising as president of Google’s America region, which accounted for $17.5 billion of Google’s revenue last year.
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. booked $13.1 billion in revenue during its final year as an independent company.
Nevertheless, Woodside’s background in online advertising is likely to raise questions about whether he is the best choice to oversee a company that specializes in making smartphones, tablet computers, and cable-TV boxes.
The takeover became possible only after government regulators were satisfied that the acquisition wouldn’t stifle competition in the smartphone market.
China removed the final regulatory hurdle by granting its approval Saturday. Regulators in the United States and Europe had cleared the deal three months ago.
