GOOG

While the market response to Google’s quarterly earnings seems to have been lukewarm, the stock price dipping in after-hours trading and at least six analysts lowering their price targets after the company came in slightly under Wall Street expectations, Warwick Business School Associate Professor John Baptista says that the modest performance is a ‘blip’.

Bapista, who has researched the company for many years, said that although Google’s ad revenues have suffered as traffic shifts from the desktop to mobile devices (something Google wasn’t slow to address), the real growth in the future will be in the cloud, with Google ideally placed to benefit … 
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Google has made its decision to acquire Motorola Mobility public this morning, announcing the acquisition worth $12.5 billion via The Official Google Blog (that’s $40 per share, 60% higher than the company’s closing price as of Friday):

Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide—with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day—through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries. Given Android’s phenomenal success, we are always looking for new ways to supercharge the Android ecosystem. That is why I am so excited today to announce that we have agreed to acquire Motorola.

This is obviously being looked at by most analysts as a move by Google to beef up their patent portfolio in the midst of the smartphone patent wars. It appears Google plans to continue running Motorola as a separate company, meaning the brand itself isn’t in jeopardy as of yet. However, this could easily be Google’s first step in the direction of gaining more control over the manufacturers that run Android. Even with Android making huge strides in recent months, Apple continues to dominate the smartphone market with their unique approach of building both hardware and software to compliment one another (at the same time as keeping the intellectual properties related to their products under one roof).

Google and Motorola will be holding a press conference at 8:30 ET. Grab the live webcast here. A snippet from the official press release below, if you’re interested. We’ll keep you posted as more info becomes available.

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Combination will Supercharge Android, Enhance Competition, and Offer Wonderful User Experiences

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA and LIBERTYVILLE, IL – AUGUST 15, 2011 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

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Google has just signed a deal to lease a new Sunnyvale campus that, as Silicon Valley reports, will be the company’s “largest presence in Silicon Valley outside of Mountain View”.

The deal could see GOOG moving up to 2,900 employees for the long-term onto the new campus that totals 715,000 square feet at the Technology Corners complex at 11th Avenue and Innovation Way in Sunnyvale. This contributes to the over 1.9 million square feet of real estate the company has already committed to this year.

“As we continue to grow, it’s important to find space for our future employees close to our headquarters,” said David Radcliffe, vice president of real estate and workplace services for Google. “That’s why we’ve leased space at Moffett Park’s Technology Corners.”

Google has good reason to expand their presence in the Valley. The report notes Google plans on hiring more new employees this year than ever before with an additional 6,000 new members joining the team worldwide. Other companies, notably Apple, have been buying up land with big plans to accommodate their own growing employee base.

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