Google’s twelve-billion-dollar acquisition of Motorola Mobility, announced Monday, will please shareholders of the mobile company, but will, and should, be a cause of anxiety for platform and content companies. Google has recently labored to reassure telephone companies that its Android operating system, unlike Apple’s iPhone, will be open to all and exclusive to no one. Google has calmed Hollywood studios and television networks by allowing its YouTube platform to pay for their content, reassuring them that it was not competing to make content. Google Books has made similar assurances to authors, book publishers, and book stores. (I’ve written for The New Yorker about the company’s efforts.) Although Google says its purchase of Motorola will not grant it most-favored-nation treatment, don’t be surprised if few believe this. The interests of Google shareholders who want their Motorola division to have exclusive mobile features will vie with the interests of the other mobile companies Google says it is serving.
If Google is to acquire a mobile-telephone company, why not a film or television studio? Why not become a book publisher? Content companies are already suspicious of the intentions of Netflix and Amazon. After newspapers and book publishers and Hollywood companies threatened and filed lawsuits against Google, the Mountain View company worked strenuously to settle the cases and to demonstrate that its platform was a neutral Switzerland. This morning’s announcement will instill fear that Google is a combatant.
