Google-Motorola Mobility merger review temporarily halted by EU antitrust regulators

Despite pretty much the majority of the tech industry nodding their heads in approval at the Google-Motorola Mobility acquisition, and with Motorola Mobility’s shareholders giving them the greenlight to go ahead with this new venture, it appears that antitrust regulators in the EU have temporarily halted the review of the acquisition to obtain “certain documents that are essential to its evaluation of the transaction”.

According to a Google spokesperson, this temporary halt is “routine” and that both Google and Motorola Mobility have already foreseen that the deal will most likely close in 2012. For fans and users of Android, this deal is a pretty crucial one as one of the reasons (if not the main reason) why Google decided to purchase Motorola Mobility is because of the 17,000 or so patents that Motorola Mobility currently holds.

The plan is to use those patents to help protect their partners and manufacturers who may be targeted by other companies for legal disputes over patent infringements, i.e. Apple vs Samsung and Microsoft going about collecting royalties from Android handset manufacturers.