• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, September 29, 2011

The Justice Department is requesting more information about Google's proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the search engine said this week.

In a blog post, Google said it plans to cooperate fully with the "second request" from the antitrust division, which it assures is "pretty routine."

Routine or not, "A second request does not mean the agency will block the deal, just that it wants to take a closer look at the antitrust issues," according to the Los Angeles Times.

"While Google doesn't appear to be too worried about the request, they did note this means they wouldn't be 'closing right away,'" notes 9to5Google.com.

According to All Things D, it's actually quite rare for proposed deals to elicit a second look. "Only four percent of transactions got such a follow-up request from regulators," it writes. "To be fair, it is much more common in high-profile, big-money deals like this one."

In a blog post, Google SVP Dennis Woodside writes: "We're confident that this deal will be approved. We believe very strongly this is a pro-competitive transaction that is good for Motorola Mobility, good for consumers and good for our partners."

"However, there's a chance Woodside is playing it cool, since the more quickly Google can seal the deal on Motorola Mobility, the more quickly it bags the 17,000 patents commonly thought to be a main motivator in the purchase," The Register writes.

Meanwhile, "Motorola Mobility said it too would cooperate and expected the transaction to close by the end of the year or in early 2012," the LA Times notes, citing a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Last month, Google announced plans to buy Motorola Mobility for more than $12 billion.

Along with Google, Microsoft was reportedly interested in acquiring Motorola's patent portfolio, which would have allowed it to take down Android. Rumor has it, however, that Motorola found a Google deal more desirable because Microsoft had no interest in running its hardware business.