Shareholders of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc late Thursday approved a 12.5-billion-dollar takeover offer from Google Inc, gaining the internet giant a stronger foothold in the handset sector, and expanding its patent portfolio.
Motorola said shareholders voted with an “overwhelming majority” in favour of the deal, which put a premium of more than 60 per cent on the company relative to its trading value when the offer was made in August.
The deal remained subject to approval by the U.S. competition watchdog, which filed a second request for information on the planned takeover with Google in September.
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Google already has some market influence in the mobile sector with its Android operating system for smartphones and tablet computers.
Motorola said it expected the acquisition to be completed in early 2012.