China approves Google’s acquisition of Motorola, should finalize within the week

The Wall Street Journal just reported that China antitrust regulators finally cleared Google’s acquisition of Motorola after the Mountain View-based Google shocked the world by announcing the $12.5 billion deal last August. Antitrust regulators in both Europe and the United States approved the deal in February, but China was the last piece needed to complete the puzzle.

Furthermore, today’s report said the deal should complete within the week. Motorola, along with HTC and Samsung, is one of the most popular Android OEMs, and it definitely holds a huge patent portfolio. Google’s acquisition is mostly around gaining Motorola’s 17,000 patents, because the company said it will operate Motorola as a separate entity, rather than showing it favoritism over other manufacturers. We will let you know when the deal is finalized.