The era of Googorola is nearly upon us, and the implications of such a deal are still greatly unknown to most of us. We could see some pretty amazing (and odd) gizmos and gadgets spawn from this little get together, and we can definitely expect a stronger Android platform than ever before. Other Android OEMs have remained relatively at bay thus far, but that could change in an instant when they see the first flagship Moto handset with a purely Android experience. In fact, an end to MotoBlur may be the most exciting result of Googorola, indeed (at least to us end users).
But there are a few things that need to happen first.
Google has obviously started on its trip through the obstacle course that is the United States regulatory approval system. In Google’s original statement on Wednesday, it claimed that the deal was subject to regulatory approval in the U.S., the EU, and other jurisdictions. Funny, one of those other jurisdictions happens to be one of the biggest in the world: China. And Google has yet to send China’s Commerce Ministry an application for approval.
Apparently the rules in China are as follows: If your company earns an annual global revenue of at least 10 billion yuan ($1.55 billion in USD) or your company generates annual revenue of 400 million yuan (US $62.6 million) inside China, you best get your butt over to the Commerce Ministry and get approval for any proposed acquisition.
“The ministry has so far not received any application for an anti-monopoly review,” said Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang in a Reuters interview.
Google has long had some beef with China. Over the past few years the censorship of results wore on the search giant, and with the cyber attacks that happened in January 2010, Google basically said it wouldn’t be playing by the rules anymore, even if it meant leaving China for good. Having to deal with the Chinese government likely isn’t the most pleasurable part of the merger, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right Googs?