Just hours after receiving a big thumbs up from European regulators, the US Justice Department has followed suit and approved Google’s proposed $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility. Despite the controversy surrounding the deal, the Justice Department doesn’t view the merger as a direct threat to competition. However, the Justice Department did warn that they “will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action to stop any anticompetitive use of SEP (standard essential patent) rights.”

China, Israel and Taiwan still need to submit their approval on the deal, but with Europe and the US both on board we’d be truly surprised if the deal didn’t go through.

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