Google completes buyout of Magnolia Broadband patents

Magnolia Broadband revealed that Google was buying some of its patents at the start of June, but to say that its confirmation was brief would be an understatement. It's being more verbose now that the transaction has been cleared: Google now owns over 50 patents for beamforming wireless signals. Magnolia characterizes the techniques as important to making the best use of cellular connections, which could well be helpful to a company that just bought Motorola. Having said this, we can't help but think that the various patent battles of Google's recent acquisition may play a part; obtaining cellular-specific patents would give potential attackers a reason to think twice.