From that article: "Which again leads to the question: why did Google buy Motorola? The real answer is worth $12.5 billion."

I love how people keep trotting this number out. Nevermind the fact that Moto had $3 billion in cash[1], which immediately became Google's cash when the purchase went through, so the real price was closer to 9.5 billion. Motorola also had 24,500 patents in its portfolio[2]. Apple, MS, and RIM paid 4.5 billion for 6,000 Nortel patents not long before the Moto sale.

[1] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/whats-behind-the-heft...

[2] http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/08/valuing-paten...