Justice Department Clears Google Acquisition of Motorola Mobility

Just hours after European Union antitrust regulators gave the okay to Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility, their counterparts at the U.S. Department of Justice did the same. The DOJ echoed the EU concern over how Google will handle standards essential patents and said it would be watching, but it concluded overall that “the specific transactions at issue are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics.” Also approved was the sale of a batch of Nortel patents to a consortium composed of Apple, Microsoft and RIM.