To make a broad point without going into details about patent quality:

Nortel: $4.5B / 6,000 patents = $750k per patent.

Motorola: $12.5B / 14,300 patents = $856,164.38 per patent.

Plus 6,700 patents pending.

Plus a hardware company.

There are obviously a lot of other factors, but it seems like a pretty good deal, and maybe a smarter way for Google to go about acquiring patents without having to deal with bidding wars with consortia of their competitors.

Either way, it seems the lawyers are winning. Everywhere.