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Google & Motorola have announced  that Google (GOOG) will be  acquiring  Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (MMI). A definitive agreement has been reached and the details are as follows: Google will acquire Motorola at a premium of 63% over Motorola Mobility shares as on Friday, August 12th. This means that Google will pay $40.00 per share in cash, amounting to $12.5 billion . This news was received very well by the market, with Motorola’s stock shooting up . However, Google will continue running Motorola Mobility as a separate business and the open nature of its Android will be unaltered . Larry Page, CEO of Google said , “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers. ” Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility commented , “ This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses. ” However, the real reason for Google’s acquisition may be something else ; Patents . While Motorola may not have such a large market share in the smart-phone segment, they do have a large number of valuable patents credited to their name; 12,000 issued patents and 7500 patent applications. Over the past year or so, the Patent war has escalated to an extraordinary levels. We had reported earlier on how Patents Are Stifling Innovation with an official  blog post last week on the patent war and its bad effects. The patent war has gotten so bad that even companies like the developers of Angry Birds  had been affected. Samsung too has had to suspend shipments of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in certain markets, and pay Microsoft for patents . By acquiring Motorola Google will be in a much better position to defend itself and its partners from such attacks.  However, people are wondering why Google didn’t take the cheaper option of buying Motorola’s patents outright, instead of an acquisition. This could be a n indicator that Google wants to get into the phone hardware game. Earlier, they used to release one Nexus device a year to ‘point the industry in the right direction’. We may be seeing a change soon. Is Google’s taking over Motorola will be a reason for Apple and Microsoft-Nokia to worry? Do share your views.