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It's hard not to draw connections between the various events of the last week or so: 1) Google/Samsung patent deal, 2) Google purchases Nest, 3) Google sells Mo
by zmmmmm 13y ago
It's hard not to draw connections between the various events of the last week or so: 1) Google/Samsung patent deal, 2) Google purchases Nest, 3) Google sells Motorola, 4) Samsung suddenly cools on Tizen.
Theory: Google gets offered the opportunity to buy Nest. Either Larry or Sergey gets serious interested. They bought Motorola because they wanted a serious stake in the hardware market. They toss up which is better - Motorola or Nest? They decide Nest is the winner. They realize the valuations are such that they could pretty much just swap Motorola for Nest. But there's a problem: Motorola was also their insurance for making sure they would always have an OEM to make Android handsets. If Samsung ever turned - they would never find themselves unable to secure a Nexus partner. So they go to Samsung, and offer a deal: patents, guarantees of support, probably other stuff: as long as you agree to make Android your flagship each year AND GPE phone version of it. This seems good enough. Motorola not needed any more and they can get a new toy to play with - Nest is the winner.
- Zigurd 13y agoBuying Moto handsets was a brain-fart from the beginning. It's a good day for Google shareholders that Google decided to take the perceived financial hit (in reality they had taken that hit already) and unload a small-ish mediocre handset OEM and achieve clarity in their OEM partner relationships. The biggest red flag I had seen re Google last year were the ads Moto ads with the tag line "A Google company." I could not think of a less Google-like company than an old-line handset OEM.
- yabatopia 13y agoI don't think Nest has much to do with it. As I see it: 1) Google and Samsung sign a sweet patent deal, 2)Samsung halts or slows down the development of replacements for Google apps and promises not to fork Android, 3)In return Google drops Motorola, a direct competitor to Samsung.
- smaddali 13y agoI agree with you. This may be a straight up barter with Samsung
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- hayksaakian 13y agoThis is just a bit over the top. Samsung was a Nexus partner 1 time. (2 if you count the play edition s4) They've worked with LG and HTC multiple times.
- Raphael 13y agoThrice. Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, and Nexus 10.