[Azure]

“The tax benefits of the deal make what was a good deal into a great deal,” said Robert Willens, a New York accounting and tax expert. He estimated that through the acquisition, Google can expect to reap $700m a year in tax deductions from future profits each year through 2019. Google also will be able to immediately reduce its taxes by $1bn due to Motorola Mobility’s US net operating loss, and by a further $700m due to its foreign operating loss, he said.

Adding all of that up and Google will actually, in the end, pay around $1.5 billion for Motorola as a handset maker and that great stack of patents. This still might not be a good deal: too early to tell as yet. But that’s certainly a very different deal from paying $12.5 billion for the same two things.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworst...-buy-motorola/