Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Thursday that it has approved Google Inc.’s move to purchase Motorola Mobility “with no stings attached,” saying that it would not restrain competition in related industries.

“Based on our reviews of opinions from stakeholders and global coordination (with foreign antitrust watchdogs), we have concluded that the deal would not limit market competition in related industries,” the Fair Trade Commission said in a press release.

Google announced in August last year it would buy a 100-percent stake in Motorola Mobility, raising concern that the large-scale business deal could have a significant impact on the landscape of the global mobile phone market. They notified the FTC here of the deal in December.

Google is the world’s largest supplier of the smartphone operating system “Android,” which makes up 43.4 percent of the global smartphone OS market. Motorola is one of the world’s top 10 mobile phone makers, according to industry data.

The merger was expected to affect South Korean mobile handset makers such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., which produce handsets that use Google’s Android, experts said.

Considering that the merger could have a far-reaching impact on the global market, the Seoul watchdog had been seeking cooperation from its counterparts in the United States and the European Union, which also deliberated the Google-Motorola issue.

“This case is meaningful in that (we) closely reviewed its anti-competition aspect through global cooperation with foreign authorities in such countries as the U.S. and the EU,” the FTC said.

“We also gathered opinions from stakeholders sufficiently in the process of the deliberation in order to closely look at possible impact of the deal on the markets at home and abroad,” it added. 

(Yonhap News)