Shares of Motorola Mobility, which has operations in Plantation, soared Monday after Google announced plans to buy it for $12.5 billion in cash.
The initial good news for South Florida jobs is that Google said Motorola Mobility will be run as a separate business.
Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) was up $13.65, or 55.78 percent, to close at $38.12, slightly below Google's offer of $40 a share. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) closed down $6.54, or 1.16 percent, to $556.34 a share.
The deal is a watershed in the mobile handset market since Google's Android system has made inroads in a market dominated by the iPhone, made by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and BlackBerry, made by Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM). Like Apple, Google will now have a captive hardware maker to go with its software.
With control of mobile content, hardware and software, Google is going to be in a good position to compete with the Apples and Microsofts of the world, said Deborah Vazquez, CEO of Boca Raton-based IT staffing firm Protech and co-chair of theSouth Florida Technology Alliance .
In addition, the deal "ensures that people will continue to innovate around the mobile space and in Android in particular," saidMyk Willis, founder and CEO of Delray Beach-based Myxer, one of the largest service providers of personalized mobile entertainment. "HTC, Samsung and smaller companies, like ourselves, will now have a viable path to market in the mobile industry.”
Nonetheless, the announcement had little impact on Apple shares, which closed up $6.42, or 1.7 percent, to $383.41.
The deal also offered a general tonic to the turbulent stock market, with the Dow closing up 213.88, or 1.9 percent to 11,482.90. Many technology companies have deep reserves of cash, so some Wall Street observers hope more tech deals could be in the offing.