Google-Motorola Deal Lawsuit: $12.5B Is Not Enough

It didn’t take very long: there’s nothing like the word “billion” to attract lawsuits these days. The lawsuit doesn’t come from a competitor wary that Motorola and Google (aka Moogle) may be a threat. Instead, it comes from an investor who thinks that a 60% premium over Motorola’s market value was… too low. Investor John W. Keating writes in his filing:

“The offered consideration does not compensate shareholders for the company’s intrinsic value and stand-alone alternatives going forward, nor does it compensate shareholders for the company’s value as a strategic asset for Google,”

Mr Keating is basically suing all parties involved in the transaction for not asking (or paying) a price that is high enough according to his own valuation. This is a matter of opinion, as a 60% premium seems like a sweet deal. Secondly, when talking about “valuation”, I don’t think that the words “intrinsic” and “going forward” should be in the same sentence. In any case, I personally don’t expect Mr. Keating to win – do you?

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: General
Tags: Google, lawsuit, Legal, Motorola