Google to buy out HTC’s smartphone business, claims a new report.
Google is all set to buy HTC’s smartphone business, claims a new report coming out of Taiwan’s Commercial Times. Now, given that Google’s last smartphone business acquisition Motorola didn’t go so well, the new report around HTC needs to be taken with a pinch.
The report claims that Google and HTC are in the final of negotiations and currently the main point is smartphones. It seems Google is not interested in the VR department and also HTC doesn’t plan to sell its entire business. The report, which is not really clear at times, claims Google is looking at the HTC acquisition as a “strategic investment.” It even goes on to claim this will be finalised by the end of the year.
The report of HTC selling the smartphone business to Google comes after there were reports that the Taiwanese company was looking at selling parts of its business. The Google acquisition is being cited given the close relationship between the two companies. HTC is the company that actually manufactured the Google Pixel smartphone and the original Nexus phone was also a HTC device.
Now HTC, which used to be one of the world’s top smartphone vendors has seen its fortunes fall since 2013 and is now longer in the top five. The company is struggling to maintain revenues, and the devices haven’t exactly been a hit. In fact with the rise of Chinese players like Huawei, OPPO, vivo, etc, HTC and its flagships are unable to keep up, despite some strong new features.
HTC recently launched the U11, flagship phone with Edge Sensors at a premium pricing. However, the dominance of Samsung, Apple is something HTC has not be able to break in the premium segment. Google for its part is not going to be giving up on the Pixel series anytime soon as they have indicated and the Pixel 2 launch is set for October, according to reports. However, leaks have also claimed LG, not HTC will be manufacturing the Pixel 2 XL smartphone.
We’ll have to wait and see if Google does buy HTC, which could prove to be a beneficial thing for the latter. Unlike Motorola, which came with an army of patents as well for Google, the exact advantages of HTC acquisition are unclear where the search giant is concerned.
