Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) — Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the mobile-phone maker that agreed to be bought this week for $12.5 billion by Google Inc., cannot solicit other offers, according to terms of the merger agreement published today.

All employees and directors of the company as well as outside advisers and legal counsel had to stop any solicitation of other proposals as of Aug. 15, the document states. Still, Motorola’s board has a fiduciary duty to consider any unsolicited superior proposal it may receive, according to the agreement.

Google, the world’s largest maker of smartphone software, is buying Motorola Mobility to gain mobile patents and expanding in the hardware business. Both boards have approved the takeover, which provides Motorola Mobility shareholders a 63 percent premium over the stock’s closing price on the trading day preceding the offer.

Motorola Mobility, based in Libertyville, Illinois, rose 11 cents to $38.13 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. Google, based

in Mountain View, California, fell $5.85, or 1.1 percent, to $533.15 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Google has agreed to pay Motorola Mobility $2.5 billion if the deal falls through, the contract states. Motorola Mobility would pay $375 million if it decided not to sell to Google, according to the agreement.

Via: sfgate/bloomberg

Android’s always had a best friend forever (or, for the time being) in Verizon. Together, the two companies were able to establish Andy Rubin’s mobile OS as a serious platform competitor, fighting back against the then threat of AT&T’s exclusive iPhone juggernaut with Moto’s Droid. Flash forward to present day and it’s no wonder Big Red’s SVP John Thorne is giving a public-facing, albeit tentative, thumbs up to Google’s Motorola Mobility acquisition. Thorne’s official line on the deal concerns the “stability [it might bring] to the ongoing smartphone patent disputes,” but the executive declined to comment further, citing a lack of known details for the proposed buyout. Certainly, the wireless operator has good reason to keep a close eye on the takeover, as a recent Chitika survey pegs it with a commanding 41 percent share of active Android handsets. So far, only Nokia has come out from behind Microsoft’s shadow, hailing the move as a boon for WP7 and casting shade on Google’s intentions. As for the rest of the industry, it appears they’re all making heavy use of that nifty statement generator. Hit the more coverage link to see what we mean.

via: wsj

Google introduced a  new “Cr-48″ laptop. This is the very first Chrome OS laptop. Google will move the laptop through its Chrome OS Pilot Program. It’s a public beta. You can join the program. Lookout, though, only limited number of the laptops available. When? somewhere in mid 2011 for the public. Google’s giving them away in exchange for feedback. It will have a 12.1 inch screen, oversized clickpad, 802.11n dual-band wifi, webcam and flash storage. For details on the specs, google it of course. Oh yeah, they have partnered with Verizon to give you 100mb of data for free. Dig it. No-frills notebook and the thing is supposed to boot in 10 seconds, yeah!

NFC is an acronym for “near field communication”. The technology is not new. It’s like bluetooth or RFID. The new Nexus S has it built in. Apple is probably going to put it into the iPhone 5. The Notion Ink tablet may get it too. It is an extension of the ISO/IEC 14443 proximity-card standard.  The process is still not quite mature yet, but you know how that goes; most likely it will be used in more and more smart phones. It works by magnetic induction, much like the power mat works for charging up gadgets. Also, the cordless toothbrushes are using NFC. Supposedly, it is a one-way communication, but that may change too. You have to be close for this to work, somewhere around 10cm (4 inches) The tech is being used in Japan and Europe on an ever-growing scale. Like most technology these days, the hackers will be busy, trying to hack the thing.