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Google and HTC announce partnership

$1.1 billion deal sees HTC employees joining Google.

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It has long been rumoured that Google would purchase the smartphone division from partners HTC, and while that's not exactly what was announced this morning, the gist of it is just that.

Google will pay $1.1 billion (USD) to acquire certain HTC employees, many of whom have been involved with developing the Pixel smartphones under license, and now it would appear that Google will assume full control of this. Furthermore, Google receives HTC IP through a "non-exclusive licensing agreement".

The deal allows HTC to continue to focus on their "branded smartphone strategy", while letting the company assume a more cost-effective organisation while continuing to work virtual reality with Vive as well as other "next-generation technologies", the Internet of Things, augmented reality and artificial intelligence was specified as areas HTC work on.

"As a pioneer of the smartphone market, we are very proud of our history of innovation. Our unmatched smartphone value chain, including our IP portfolio, and world-class talent and system integration capabilities, have supported Google in bolstering the Android market," said Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC. "This agreement is a brilliant next step in our longstanding partnership, enabling Google to supercharge their hardware business while ensuring continued innovation within our HTC smartphone and VIVE virtual reality businesses. We believe HTC is well positioned to maintain our rich legacy of innovation and realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services."

"HTC has been a longtime partner of Google and has created some of the most beautiful, premium devices on the market," said Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President of Hardware at Google. "We're excited and can't wait to welcome members of the HTC team who will be joining Google to fuel further innovation and future product development in consumer hardware."

One caveat though, the transaction is subject to approvals, and won't be finalised until early 2018.

Google and HTC announce partnership
HTC U11 is the latest smartphone from the Taiwanese company.


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