Google's mammoth $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility and their 17,000+ patents were surprisingly "welcomed" with open arms by other manufacturers who push out Android-powered devices. Samsung, Sony Ericsson, HTC and LG all published a very political and structured sentence that went something like this: "We welcome Google's commitment to defending Android and its partners". There has been limited talk since this happened in August, but Google outwardly stated that one of the main reasons for taking over Motorola would "increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies."