Google Sells Moto Home to Arris for $2.35B
Just in time for the holidays, Arris picks up a little something to increase its competitiveness against Cisco
If the lingering Google sale of the Motorola Home business was adding to your holiday stress, here's an early present: Google struck a deal with Arris Group Inc. late Wednesday, for $2.35 billion in cash and stock.
That's $2.05 billion in cash and roughly $300 million in newly issued Arris stock, if you're keeping score at home. The shares give Google a 15.7 percent interest in Arris.
Arris also gets a license to those Motorola Mobility patents, which supposedly were the jewel of the Google/Motorola deal in the first place.
The deal is expected to close by April.
Why this matters
Sources were beginning to doubt Google would get the $2 billion price it wanted. But it worked out for the company, as Arris beat out Pace plc, which definitely submitted a bid, and possibly CommScope Inc. and Ericsson AB, which had been pegged as likely buyers.
The deal is going to be a challenge for Arris, which would double its head count to around 4,200. But the company catapults into a new level of business. Roughly 30 percent of its sales would be in set-top boxes after the deal, and Arris would become a stronger CMTS competitor to Cisco Systems Inc.
For more
Pace Bids for Motorola Home
Does Google Have a Plan B?
Could an Arris-Motorola Marriage Work?
— Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading
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