Google finalizes $12.5B US Motorola deal

Google has completed a $12.5 billion US deal to acquire cellphone maker Motorola Mobility, the company announced on its blog Tuesday. 

The technology giant had announced its intention to purchase the U.S. mobile communications company last year and was awaiting approval from regulators in the various countries in which it operates. China was the last to grant approval. It did so on Saturday — on condition that Google's Android software would remain free for other cellphone makers for at least five years.

U.S. and European Union regulators approved the acquisition in February.

Google said it has appointed Dennis Woodside, previously president of Google's Americas region, to be the new CEO of Motorola Mobility, replacing Sanjay Jha.

Technology analysts widely see Google's purchase of Motorola, a pioneer in the cellphone industry, as an attempt to beef up its portfolio of patents in order to be able to compete with other tech giants like Microsoft and Apple, which are increasingly at war with each other over technology patents.

Motorola Mobility, which split off from Motorola in January 2011, holds 17,000 patents for various wireless technologies and standards and has said it has another several thousand pending. These will now belong to Google.