Google’s plans for now are to run Motorola Mobility as a separate business that remains one of the licensees of Android. Nothing will change for the Android platform which will remain open for all hardware partners according to Larry Page’s post on the official Google blog.

Google’s CEO reveals furthermore the motivation behind the deal. Google believes that Motorola’s mobile business is “on an upward trajectory and poised for explosive growth” thanks to the concentration on Android as the sole operating system for all of its smartphones.

Motorola is also seen as a market leader in the “home devices and video solutions business”.

Probably more interesting than that is Motorola’s patent portfolio which is explicitly mentioned by Larry Page on the Google blog post.

Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

While I cannot really vouch for or against Motorola’s patent portfolio, it needs to be noted that Microsoft has sued the company back in 2010 for infringing on Microsoft patents.

Google expects the transaction to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012 if it is approved by Motorola stockholders and regulatory approvals in the US and the European Union.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and Apple will react, and if and how Motorola Mobility smartphones and tables will benefit from this.

What’s your take on the acquisition? Let me know in the comments.

The acquisition announcement on the SUPERAntiSpyware website may have come as a shock to many long time users of the free or paid version of the application.

Information are scarce at this point in time, the only useful bits from the announcement are that the whole team will join support.com in the near future. The post mentions that “some things will change” but does not go into details what those things might be. The press release at support.com includes additional information.

Support.com has paid $8.5 million in cash for SUPERAntiSpyware and plans to “expand SUPERAntiSpyware’s business with increased distribution and product enhancements”.

When you look at support.com’s offerings you will note that they provide tech support to consumers and businesses alike. Services include one-time fixed prices for support requests, or subscriptions plans for round the clock PC support.

Services include installing hardware, troubleshooting computer problems or removing viruses and spyware. SUPERAntiSpyware will be added to the list of programs the company offers directly to consumers and small businesses.

But what about the free version of the software? Will it still be around after the acquisition? According to SUPERAntiSpyware founder Nick Skrepetos it will.

Of course we will honor lifetime licenses and the free edition isn’t going away

So, users who have a lifetime license will keep their licenses and will continue to get updates, and free users will still get access to a free version of the application.

I’d give the company the benefit of the doubt, but we have seen acquisitions in the past were promises were made but not kept. Lets hope that this is not one of those cases.

It is not clear at this point in time if FriendFeed’s service will continue to be offered or if the website will be shut down eventually.

Both parties involved seem to be very happy with the deal while many members of the FriendFeed community appear disgruntled. Two of the main concerns are related to privacy. One fear is that user data will be carried over to Facebook, another that Facebook and FriendFeed are being used to address different groups of people. Many use Facebook to stay in touch with close friends and family while FriendFeed was being used as a way to communicate with groups of users who shared similar interests.

Below is the official press release that was issued by Facebook and the blog post written by FriendFeed:

PALO ALTO, CALIF.—August 10, 2009—Facebook today announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online. As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed’s four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams.

“Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends,” said Bret Taylor, a FriendFeed co-founder and, previously, the group product manager who launched Google Maps. “We can’t wait to join the team and bring many of the innovations we’ve developed at FriendFeed to Facebook’s 250 million users around the world.”

“As we spent time with Mark and his leadership team, we were impressed by the open, creative culture they’ve built and their desire to have us contribute to it,” said Paul Buchheit, another FriendFeed co-founder. Buchheit, the Google engineer behind Gmail and the originator of Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto, added, “It was immediately obvious to us how passionate Facebook’s engineers are about creating simple, ground-breaking ways for people to share, and we are extremely excited to join such a like-minded group.”

Taylor and Buchheit founded FriendFeed along with Jim Norris and Sanjeev Singh in October 2007 after all four played key roles at Google for products like Gmail and Google Maps. At FriendFeed, they’ve brought together a world-class team of engineers and designers.

“Since I first tried FriendFeed, I’ve admired their team for creating such a simple and elegant service for people to share information,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use.”

FriendFeed is based in Mountain View, Calif. and has 12 employees. FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being as the teams determine the longer term plans for the product.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not released.

FriendFeed blog post:

We are happy to announce that Facebook has acquired FriendFeed. As my mom explained to me, when two companies love each other very much, they form a structured investment vehicle…

The FriendFeed team is extremely excited to become a part of the talented Facebook team. We’ve always been great admirers of Facebook, and our companies share a common vision. Now we have the opportunity to bring many of the innovations we’ve developed at FriendFeed to Facebook’s 250 million users around the world and to work alongside Facebook’s passionate engineers to create even more ways for you to easily share with your friends online.

What does this mean for my FriendFeed account?

FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being. We’re still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team. As usual, we will communicate openly about our plans as they develop — keep an eye on the FriendFeed News group for updates.

My humble prediction is that FriendFeed will continue operations until the end of the migration phase. Any thoughts on this? Possible alternatives?