Too bad corrupting search results is OK by the FTC. No one should have to hold Google accountable, they should do it themselves, but the FTC has lost my confidence by simply knuckling under and agreeing Google has ‘free speech’ rights in its software.

I expect anything I use with a Google in it, Android, Google Docs, Gmail, G+ etc, Google will now claim any mis-behavior is ‘free speech’ .. Trust isn’t something Google should have messed with, irrespective of the FTC’s allowing it to go south. The Judge will be the market, unfortunately. I think the FTC could have saved Google’s bacon.

‘At $12.5B, Motorola is Google’s largest acquisition to date. Google paid $40 / share in cash, but received ~$11 / share in cash and $8 / share in deferred tax assets. Thus the value ascribed to operations + patents was about $21 / share, or $6.3B, reflecting a multiple of ~0.5x sales and 12x EBITDA. Now adjusting this further for the $2.35B total consideration Google is expected to receive for the Motorola Home business, we get a purchase price of just under $4B for Motorola’s handset business and patent portfolio (17K patents and 7.5K patent applications). This compares very favorably to recent patent deals such as Apple, Microsoft, RIM, Sony, Ericsson, and EMC paying $4.5B for 6K patents (July ’11) and Microsoft paying $1B for 800+ AOL patents (April ’12). Based on a sum of the parts, one could conclude Google acquired either the handset or its patents for a very minimal cost.’

http://www.zdnet.com/googles-motorola-purchase-was-it-worth-it-7000009356/