Deals like this don’t come along every day. The search giant Google has rarely strayed into this kind of massive buyout in the past (a few billion for DoubleClick comes to mind) and never for something like hardware. But now that Google has announced a $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola, a maker of smartphones and TV set-top boxes, the guessing game begins. Will Google take the patents and spin off the hardware company? Can Google really keep Motorola independent and resist the siren song of putting its Google brand name on everything? And what about competing handset makers in the Android ecosystem? Will they believe Google can stay neutral with its own Android phones from Motorola? Vote in our poll to tell us who you think wins in this deal, and share your more profound thoughts in the comments.
