Google Valued Motorola's Patents At $5.5bn

It's almost been a year since Google purchased Motorola Mobility for the princely sum of $12.4 billion, but how much of that was for the intellectual property? The Wall Street Journal reports that a regulatory filing for the purchase has revealed that around $5.5 billion of the purchase was for Motorola's extensive patent portfolio. The filing also goes into detail about how Google arrived at the $12.4 billion price tag for Motorola Mobility.

Essentially, Google bought all the outstanding shares in the company, along with all the vested stock options and restricted stock units. Google then added $401 million for unvested stock options, with transaction costs accounting for $50 million. Out of the $12.4 billion total purchase price, $2.9 billion was for Motorola's cash, $5.5 billion was patent related, $2.6 billion was a goodwill gesture upon sale completion, $730 million went to customer relationships, and $670 million to other net assets.

Google may now own all the relevant intellectual property and hardware side of Motorola Mobility, but the company still hasn't announced any plans to leverage Motorola in any way. Google has stressed that the two companies will be separated by a firewall, and Android hardware such as the Nexus line won't be influenced by the purchase. So far that seems to ring true, with Google's 7-inch tablet being manufactured by ASUS, and future versions of Android have been promised to manufacturers via a PDK to spur early updates. Still, Google is remaining coy about its plans for Motorola in the future, which may still be a cause for concern for partners like Samsung and HTC.