Google snaps up Motorola patents

Google is spending $12.5bn (€8.6bn) to buy Motorola Mobility.

But the big prize is not Motorola’s lineup of mobile phones, tablet computers and cable set-top boxes – it is Motorola’s more than 17,000 patents – a crucial weapon in an intellectual arms race with Apple, Microsoft and Oracle to gain more control over the increasingly lucrative market for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.