Moto goes to google -- good or bad for Chicago / region?? (Libertyville: sales, buy)

[chet everett]

Investors will get a nice pile of cash, but longer term will there be jobs lost in Libertyville? Chicago itself?

My gut says this is BAD for jobs in the region -- the "center of gravity" for Moto's huge patent portfolio will shift toward Googleplex in MntView CA -- not good...

[oakparkdude]

If the alternative is Motorola Mobility going out of business (as seemed likely), this is a good thing. Sure the headquarters moves to California, but the head count in Chicago may go up if Google is able to turn around this sinking ship.

[Attrill]

Motorola has done a good job of restructuring over the last few years - a couple years ago I wouldn't have predicted they would still be around. The purchase by Google is the best option for a buy out. If they'd been bought by another electronics company they would definitely be moved.

Google bought them for their patents, not for the company itself. I don't think Google knows exactly what they're going to do with Motorola Mobility yet, but since it doesn't tie in directly with their core business there's no pressing reason for them to move the company.

Google has a sizable Chicago office and is very comfortable doing business here. Until they indicate what they're planning to do with Motorola Mobility it's very hard to predict where the headquarters will be.

[Aleking]

Originally Posted by Attrill

Motorola has done a good job of restructuring over the last few years - a couple years ago I wouldn't have predicted they would still be around. The purchase by Google is the best option for a buy out. If they'd been bought by another electronics company they would definitely be moved.

Google bought them for their patents, not for the company itself. I don't think Google knows exactly what they're going to do with Motorola Mobility yet, but since it doesn't tie in directly with their core business there's no pressing reason for them to move the company.

Google has a sizable Chicago office and is very comfortable doing business here. Until they indicate what they're planning to do with Motorola Mobility it's very hard to predict where the headquarters will be.

Good post.

[chet everett]

Google's office in Chicago is almost completely focused on interfacing with the Chicago based advertising agencies and selling direct ads for local firms. There is slim chance for any "synergy" with Moto.

While agree that this is better than seeing Moto get snatched up by somebody like Paul Allan that would have just wanted the patents and shut down the HW business, the fact is that without some heroic efforts to get some hardware geniuses working to beat back the cost cutters and copy cats at HTC and Samsung the long term future of Moto is grim. In some ways, the potential for Google ownership to HURT the release of HW is a real concern -- if Moto gets any "insider edge" from being the defacto "keeper of the HW reference platform" that will cause the OTHER Android companies to seek injunctions... And the real issue that Moto has had for a LONG TIME now is not that they don't make quality phones, but that they are unwilling / unable to "give them away" as cheaply as Asian competition. Google's hoard of cash doesn't do much to change that nor does Google's ham fisted / failed efforts at selling direct to consumers -- that p.o'ed carriers so much that they GOT OUT of the "direct to consumer" selling that they were doing to focus on releasing even more feature laden versions of Android with ever cuter names... That is not the "military spec" heritage of Motorola.

[grapico]

Yeah...Google already has quite a big operation in Chicago, both sales and engineering... might be good actually.

[Chicago60614]

Google moved into Chicago 6 years ago and now employes hundreds in sales and engineering. Chicago is one of their fastest growing areas. I'm assuming they'll shift things around, but I don't see any wholesale changes to the workforce.

Google is coming into this market more and more, and with Moto not really being a central aspect of google as it exists now, there's not much of a reason to spend a ton of $$$$$$ just to shift things out west.

[jwaiter]

This is great for Chicago. Another example of why Chicago has a bright future, these are jobs for people here, now, are you listening IrishTom?

[hhkb]

Most of Motorola Mobility core engineering moved to Silicon Valley a couple years ago when they started developing Android phones. Most of Mot's Illinois buildings are already empty husks. So I don't expect anything to change after Google's acquisition.

[chet everett]

Quinn's announcement back in May said that Moto was "keeping 3000 jobs in Illinois" -- that seems awfully small.

I think even the folks that see some kind of "linkages" for Google and Moto's set-top cable TV business are dreaming -- in 10 years the odds of any cable company allowing themselves to be bound up in the google's snare of advertising is not going to be a remote possibility.