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