Comments on: Google Sells Off Motorola Cable and Internet Box Business For $2.35 Billion

By: Brian Williams

Brian Williams — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:46:00 +0000

Not to mention that the acquisition had more to do with the patent portfolio they got with the purchase than the actual company.

It was more like Google bought a bunch of patents and got a company for free.

By: KRS_Won

KRS_Won — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 23:58:00 +0000

Ugh. I was hoping Google might had used these for the future of Android /Google TV.

By: Daniel Dlugos

Daniel Dlugos — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:24:00 +0000

No. This was probably a good move. The actual customers for cable boxes aren’t end users, it’s the cable companies. They buy they hardware, load their own customer firmware & programs, and rent them to the actual end users (pay TV subscribers). This is a walled garden that is going to be very difficult to break into and/or change.

Google selling this unit off is in the best interest of both the Cable Co’s & Google/Motorola. The Cable Co’s don’t have to worry about Google trying to compete against them by pushing Google services towards their end customers. It also frees up Google to directly compete with the paid TV co’s without the worry of sabotaging their Cable TV box unit. If Comcast/etc. perceive Google as a competitor, they will be less likely to buy Moto boxes (why would you support the enemy?)

By: thecharrr

thecharrr — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:57:00 +0000

And the parts in them are stupidly cheap VS a new modern small design

By: spunker88

spunker88 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:24:00 +0000

I never even knew Google owned that part of Motorola, its a smart move to sell. Google TV based cable boxes would be awesome, but do you really think the cable companies would be okay with that. Customers don’t really get a choice with their cable box.

By: tlennon

tlennon — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:27:00 +0000

“$100 – $125 million in annual cost synergies.” That word. “Synergies”. Needs to die

By: michael arazan

michael arazan — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:02:00 +0000

Also having an extra $3 billion in cash is also great to invest in another business, like a wireless carrier option with Dish, that could be more profitable in the long run.
Not to mention what the cost will be to expand the Fiber network of fast internet speeds. I’d like to see them combine both Fiber and a wireless carrier

By: jdrch

jdrch — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:29:00 +0000

The newer ones are a lot smaller.

By: jdrch

jdrch — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:26:00 +0000

I was about to say the same. Google sold the golden goose.

By: Lauren Jensen

Lauren Jensen — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:17:00 +0000

The transaction is expected to close by the second quarter of 2013,… http://www.youtubeRewind2012.qr.net/jWH1/watch?v=oD7KWAQr8Q8

By: larry ellison

larry ellison — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:21:00 +0000

All the boxes from the cable companies are terrible. Navigation is awful and usually have ads at the bottom. So you can pay out the ass for cable and get ads even when navigating the channels. If you have hd they don’t even show them by default. I don’t have cable but when I go to my parents I have to train them to not watch the channels with the black bars. I don’t know how much googolra had in the software side of it but glad they selling the stuff off

By: Justin W

Justin W — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:13:00 +0000

Low-end discrete boxes? My company (a subsidiary of Comcast) uses these massive cable boxes that are larger in length/depth than a 15 inch notebook. Give me one of these discrete boxes you talk about

By: David Hodge

David Hodge — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 01:39:00 +0000

It might affect Android in that gives google $3 billion dollars to add to the offer to dish for google wireless

By: jamdev12

jamdev12 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 01:16:00 +0000

Well good point. I definitely like the GoogleTV idea built into the TV. As a matter of fact, why not have a GoogleTV with a Tegra3 chip or Tegra4. Have your phone or tablet connect wirelessly to it and you can use it as a controller for games as well as use the GoogleTV feature to get content from the internet directly to the TV.

By: Kurtis Tamez

Kurtis Tamez — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:55:00 +0000

Yup, like Cashing the check Hehe