BERLIN, Sept. 5 (Reuters/EP) -
Microsoft will be the real winner in Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, as the deal makes the Internet giant a direct rival to companies that make phones with its Android software, an Acer executive said Friday. Acer uses operating systems from both Google and Microsoft on its smartphones and tablets.
Google last month unveiled an 8.847 billion euro ($12.5 billion) bid for Motorola Mobility, its biggest purchase in history, getting into a business with narrow profit margins in which it will have to take on many cellphone companies that use its Android software.
"They work against some of their customers," said Walter Deppeler, Acer's chief operating officer in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. "It's been a great gift for Microsoft," he told Reuters at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
Other phone vendors at the IFA — such as Sony Ericsson, HTC and ZTE — have said that, with the purchase of Motorola, Google aims to keep its patents to help protect Android software.
But in turn Motorola's mobile phone business puts Google in direct competition with the other phone makers that use Android.
Deppeler said Acer would consider the implications of the merger before deciding on its operating platform for the future.
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