It is no secret that HTC is definitely not the company it once was, and over the years they have been slowly ceding market share to bigger smartphone makers, and more recently OEMs from China who are quickly rising to the top of the ranks. This is why when there were rumors that Google could be considering acquiring HTC, it did not really come as a surprise.It turns out that the rumors were true, or at least part of it because HTC and Google have recently announced a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement with each other. This will see Google more or less acquire the team behind HTC’s smartphones, or to be more specific those who have been working on the Pixel handsets, as well as a non-exclusive licensing agreement of HTC’s IP, and in exchange Google will be paying the company a whopping $1.1 billion in the process.
In a post on Google’s blog, Rick Osterloh, the SVP of Hardware wrote, “With this agreement, a team of HTC talent will join Google as part of the hardware organization. These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks we’ve already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line, and we’re excited to see what we can do together as one team. The deal also includes a non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property.”
It will be interesting to see what Google plans on doing with this recent investment, and if the rumors are true, HTC could also be one of the companies behind this year’s Pixel handsets.