In a move that could shake up the hyper-competitive smart-phone market, Google Inc. acquired Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion on Monday. The purchase price represents a 63 per cent premium on the Friday closing price of Motorola’s shares. The move gives Google a hardware partner for its free Android mobile phone operating system. It also adds more than 17,000 patents, with 7,000 pending, to the Google library.