Google Inc announced its biggest deal ever, a $12.5 billion cash acquisition of mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc .

Google's biggest foray into hardware comes weeks after a failed attempt to buy patents from bankrupt Nortel, and gives it an intellectual property library in wireless telephony to wage war on Apple and Microsoft Corp.

The deal values Motorola Mobility at $40 per share in cash, a 63 percent premium to its Friday closing price on the New York Stock Exchange. The deal features a rich reverse breakup fee of $2.5 billion, according to a source close to the situation.

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IT giant Infosys and salt-to-software conglomerate Tata have emerged as the Top 2 brands in India, beating global majors like Google, Nokia and Facebook, in a new index.

According to TLG''s Index of emerging market ''Thought Leaders'', seven out of the top ten brands in India were indigenous firms.


TLG, in partnership with international research consultancy firm GlobeScan, launched the index wherein government ministers, directors of blue chip companies and newspaper editors were asked to identify corporate brands with the power to change the attitudes and behaviour of consumers, employees or politicians -- defined as "Thought Leaders".

The list of top 20 firms was peppered with Indian brands including Larsen & Toubro (5th), State Bank of India (7th), Life Insurance Corporation of India (12th), Bharti Airtel (13th), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (14th), Aditya Birla Group (15th), The Oberoi Group (16th), HDFC Bank (17th), Dr Reddy''s Laboratories (18th) and Ranbaxy Laboratories (19th).

"... Absence of many ''Western'' major brands from the top 20 may concern CEOs who are trying to crack the BRICs. They need to refocus their energies on telling their leadership story," TLG Founder Malcolm Gooderham said.

The Top 10 features two joint ventures between local and overseas companies. The JVs are Maruti-Suzuki (4th) and Hindustan Unilever (9th).

Commenting on the findings, GlobeScan Research Director Oliver Martin said, "As the public''s faith in corporate leadership is declining in India, companies must excel in business innovation and progressive CSR to retain a Thought Leadership position." The top-ranked foreign firm is Google, which enters the index at number three, followed by Nokia at sixth rank and Facebook at eighth position.

"Western firms that succeed (Google, Nokia and Facebook) are those that adapt their models to local conditions, or ones that form JVs with locals in the driving seat (Suzuki, Unilever)," the report said.

Google, through its YouTube platform, streams live Indian Premier League cricket matches, while Facebook offers mobile access for a special rate of 1 rupee a day.

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Market regulator SEBI is likely to raise the trigger limit for open offer to 25 per cent when it takes a decision on the new Takeover Code for merger and acquisitions at its board meeting scheduled later this month.

"SEBI is likely to clear the Takeover Code in its board meeting scheduled on June 30," an official said.

An agreement seems to have emerged between the Finance Ministry and the capital market regulator for raising the trigger limit from 15 per cent to 25 per cent, as recommended by a SEBI panel but the government is not in favour of 100 per cent open offer, sources said.

"Certainly not 100 per cent," the official said when asked if the the open offer would be for the entire stake.



"More or less it would be between 50 per cent and 75 per cent," he added.

The SEBI committee headed by C Achuthan on a new Takeover Code had suggested that the acquiring company should make 100 per cent open offer, thus giving the exit option to all the shareholders of the target company.

Current norms mandate acquirer to make an open offer of 20 per cent in the target company.

The recommendation of 100 per cent open offer was opposed by the industry as it would have made acquisition a very expensive proposition.

As per the Sebi panel''s recommendations made in July last year, an entity buying 25 per cent stake in a company should make an open offer to the rest of the shareholders.

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SAN FRANCISCO  - Oracle Corp is seeking damages "in the billions of dollars" from Google Inc in a patent lawsuit over the smartphone market, according to a court filing.

The disclosure on Thursday was the first time either side publicly mentioned the cumulative scale of Oracle's damages claims.

Oracle sued Google last year, claiming the Web search company's Android mobile operating technology infringes Oracle's Java patents. Oracle bought the Java programming language through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in January 2010.


Some see the lawsuit as a sign of a growing business rivalry between the two companies.

The case is also part of a wider web of litigation among phone makers and software firms over who owns the patents used in smartphones and tablets, as rivals aggressively rush into a market in which Apple jump-started with iPhone and iPad.

Barring any settlements, a trial between Oracle and Google is expected to begin by November.

Google has called an Oracle damages report "unreliable and results-oriented," and asked a U.S. judge in San Francisco to ignore it, court documents show. In disputing Oracle's methodology, Google also asked the court to keep private some damages information Google disclosed in a court filing.

Oracle then accused Google of trying to conceal the fact Oracle's damages claims in the case are in the billions, according to a document filed on Thursday. Oracle said it did not object to having the information about its damages become public.

Due to Oracle's stance, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered Google on Thursday to make public the damages information by Friday.

A Google representative declined to comment.

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Shares in Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion have fallen by more than a fifth since it announced disappointing results on Thursday.

The company said that it had missed even its lowered expectations and reduced its profit forecasts.

RIM's net profit was $695m (£430m) in the three months to 28 May, down from $769m in the same period last year.

It warned in April that its profits would be low because of lower shipments of its Blackberry phones.
Share fall

By mid-morning local time on Friday RIM shares had fallen by 21.65% on the Nasdaq exchange in New York.

RIM has announced a cost-cutting programme, which will include job cuts.


"Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start," said Jim Balsillie, joint chief executive of RIM.

"The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter."

Immediately after the results were announced on Thursday company's shares fell sharply in after-hours trading and had to be suspended briefly.

"The guidance was just awful. The devices are receiving less shelf space and less support from carriers," said Peter Misek at Jefferies and Co in New York.

"People are not waiting. They're going to other platforms."

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