Google-Motorola Mobility purchase approved by US Department of Justice

The European Commission gave the Google-Motorola Mobility deal the green light yesterday, and not long after, it looks like the US Department of Justice has decided to follow suit as well. According to the Department of Justice; “After a thorough review of the proposed transactions, the Antitrust Division has determined that each acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition and has closed these three investigations”.

This brings Google one step closer to owning Motorola Mobility – now all the company needs is the approval of China, Israel and Taiwan to proceed. So there’s still a chance that this purchase isn’t going to fall through. In addition to approving the Google-Motorola purchase, the Department of Justice also approved the recent joint purchase of patents from Nortel by Google, Apple, Microsoft, RIM and others.

No word on when Google will get the approval of the other three nations, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted when it does.