4 ms·

I'd say this was probably plan b, for if their previous patent purchase didn't happen. The problem with Google, or any software company buying a hardware compa

I'd say this was probably plan b, for if their previous patent purchase didn't happen. The problem with Google, or any software company buying a hardware company is that generally the street values hardware at a lower multiple so this has the chance to pull down google's market cap. We'll see how the market reacts to this during today's trading.

nknight 15y ago
Was it plan B? Major purchases like this don't usually happen quickly. The Nortel and Novell stuff all went down in the last six months, and neither (separately or together) would have cost Google enough to make them back off an in-progress attempt to buy Motorola. This could have been part of a Google patent blitz from the start.
- Osiris 15y ago
  I wonder about this too. Google made those bizarre bids like $3.149b, almost like they weren't really into it. They could have just been feigning interest to drive up the price. They probably would have been happy to acquire the patents for a good price, but they clearly already had another (more important) acquisition in the pipeline. The Motorola deal I think is a lot better because it's not just patents, it's a whole hardware company with hands in a lot of pies that Google is in, like cell phones and set-top boxes. I think they'll get a much better return on their investment into Motorola than they would out of Nortel patents.
  - nknight 15y ago
    This is strange, since you basically agree with me, on the overall point, but I flatly do not understand people who think Google made "bizarre" bids. What is bizarre about a fundamentally engineering-focused company bidding pi? Why is it impossible to both take something seriously, and have a little fun? It's like the "work shouldn't be fun" crowd -- why the heck not? It wasn't the first time they did something like that. Their IPO was intended to raise e billion dollars. And why shouldn't it be? Using fundamental mathematical constants may be unusual, but it's absolutely no more arbitrary than boring "round" numbers with a bunch of zeroes, and it's like a big geek flag waving in the wind.
- irons 15y ago
  When you show up willing to pay a 63% premium, it doesn't take six months.
  - nknight 15y ago
    Well, it's a 63% premium over Friday's close, but it's a nice even $40/share. Which one seems to be by design? Notably, MMI peaked at $36.34 in January. I could see MMI's board thinking it was worth close to $40, given the crappy/insane state of the market.
- chollida1 15y ago
  True, but one month isn't unheard of. During the crash of 2008, bank deals were being made after 72 hours of "due diligence":) A company like Google is always in talks with other companies, a deal like this can happen very quickly if you've been having informal talks all along.
ordinary 15y ago
> The problem with Google, or any software company buying a hardware company is that generally the street values hardware at a lower multiple so this has the chance to pull down google's market cap. I don't think I understand what you're saying here. Could you elaborate a little?
- chollida1 15y ago
  Software companies often have higher multiples attached to their earnings than hardware companies do. This is due to the fact that hardware companies usually have lower margins that software companies do. If the street perceives Google to now be a hybrid hardware/software company then the street could lower the multiple that they use to value them.
- nknight 15y ago
  Basically the profit margin on hardware is lower than on software, or at least that's the view of Wall Street ("the street"). Thus Google has spent a big chunk of cash on a business with an inherently lower profit potential than the rest of its business, so their stock value (which has only a tenuous relationship with the hard value of a company's assets) may decline. I doubt it's going to make that much difference, though. Google hasn't actually directed money away from "software", they've spent part of their $40 billion reserve that wasn't doing anything useful on a hardware company designed to strengthen Google's position is a market it's already sort-of in.
  - robryan 15y ago
    Although it removes some of the fears that Google were going to have patent problems (I would assume anyway, their must be some patent gold in the 24000 somewhere). So that may have been previously been factored into the stock price?

nknight 15y ago

Was it plan B? Major purchases like this don't usually happen quickly. The Nortel and Novell stuff all went down in the last six months, and neither (separately or together) would have cost Google enough to make them back off an in-progress attempt to buy Motorola. This could have been part of a Google patent blitz from the start.

Osiris 15y ago
I wonder about this too. Google made those bizarre bids like $3.149b, almost like they weren't really into it. They could have just been feigning interest to drive up the price. They probably would have been happy to acquire the patents for a good price, but they clearly already had another (more important) acquisition in the pipeline. The Motorola deal I think is a lot better because it's not just patents, it's a whole hardware company with hands in a lot of pies that Google is in, like cell phones and set-top boxes. I think they'll get a much better return on their investment into Motorola than they would out of Nortel patents.
- nknight 15y ago
  This is strange, since you basically agree with me, on the overall point, but I flatly do not understand people who think Google made "bizarre" bids. What is bizarre about a fundamentally engineering-focused company bidding pi? Why is it impossible to both take something seriously, and have a little fun? It's like the "work shouldn't be fun" crowd -- why the heck not? It wasn't the first time they did something like that. Their IPO was intended to raise e billion dollars. And why shouldn't it be? Using fundamental mathematical constants may be unusual, but it's absolutely no more arbitrary than boring "round" numbers with a bunch of zeroes, and it's like a big geek flag waving in the wind.
irons 15y ago
When you show up willing to pay a 63% premium, it doesn't take six months.
- nknight 15y ago
  Well, it's a 63% premium over Friday's close, but it's a nice even $40/share. Which one seems to be by design? Notably, MMI peaked at $36.34 in January. I could see MMI's board thinking it was worth close to $40, given the crappy/insane state of the market.
chollida1 15y ago
True, but one month isn't unheard of. During the crash of 2008, bank deals were being made after 72 hours of "due diligence":) A company like Google is always in talks with other companies, a deal like this can happen very quickly if you've been having informal talks all along.

ordinary 15y ago

> The problem with Google, or any software company buying a hardware company is that generally the street values hardware at a lower multiple so this has the chance to pull down google's market cap. I don't think I understand what you're saying here. Could you elaborate a little?

chollida1 15y ago
Software companies often have higher multiples attached to their earnings than hardware companies do. This is due to the fact that hardware companies usually have lower margins that software companies do. If the street perceives Google to now be a hybrid hardware/software company then the street could lower the multiple that they use to value them.
nknight 15y ago
Basically the profit margin on hardware is lower than on software, or at least that's the view of Wall Street ("the street"). Thus Google has spent a big chunk of cash on a business with an inherently lower profit potential than the rest of its business, so their stock value (which has only a tenuous relationship with the hard value of a company's assets) may decline. I doubt it's going to make that much difference, though. Google hasn't actually directed money away from "software", they've spent part of their $40 billion reserve that wasn't doing anything useful on a hardware company designed to strengthen Google's position is a market it's already sort-of in.
- robryan 15y ago
  Although it removes some of the fears that Google were going to have patent problems (I would assume anyway, their must be some patent gold in the 24000 somewhere). So that may have been previously been factored into the stock price?