The Department of Justice cleared Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility just hours after European regulators gave the deal the nod. Now Google is officially in the hardware business—for better or worse.

In a statement, the Department of Justice said it was closing its investigation into the Google-Motorola deal and also closing a probe into the sale of Nortel’s patents by a consortium led by Apple. In other words, everyone is happy with their patents.

For Google, there’s a larger issue ahead. Google has become hardware happy overnight and Motorola Mobility could be a distraction. Google absorbs about 19,000 employees once the deal closes. Motorola Mobility will contribute revenue growth to Google, but the device maker doesn’t bring a lot of earnings to the party.

Source: ZDNet.com