This morning TruePosition and Skyhook Wireless announced that the former has acquired the latter. Skyhook is best known for providing location services to top mobile firms, including Apple and Samsung. TechCrunch has covered the company extensively throughout its life.
Skyhook is embroiled in legal action with Google over alleged anticompetitive behavior. The legal struggle, started in 2010, is expected to go to trial this year. Parallel lawsuits in two states were combined last year, at Google’s request.
The gist of the suit is that Skyhook feels that Google pushed smartphone manufacturers to abandon Skyhook’s technology in favor of its own. Given Google’s considerable influence in the mobile market as creator and manager of the Android operating system, it has clout. Patents and business practices are involved.
The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.
As part of TruePosition, it isn’t out of the question that Skyhook would have greater resources to combat Google. As for the lawsuit, it appears that things will continue as before. In a comment provided to Recode, Skyhook said that, “As for the litigation, we don’t expect any impact.”
Large technology firms attract lawsuits of all sorts, so why does the Skyhook suit matter? It has seen all sorts of Android secrets spill forth. Hundreds of pages of documents have been released, and Google’s consternation involving certain third-party mobile decisions laid bare. Given the already existing tension in the market concerning Android and its openness, the suit has provided Google with more than a headache.
It’s taken years to get where the legal tussling is today. Expect no quick conclusion.
IMAGE BY FLICKR USER DANIEL OINES UNDER CC BY 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN CROPPED)