After years of speculation, HTC has announced that its R&D division will be bought by Google (NASDAQ:$GOOGL) for $1.1 billion, in cash.
According to Peter Shen, CFO of the Taiwan-based mobile network company, roughly half of the 4,000 employees in the R&D team will join Google. However, Shen made it clear that HTC will continue to develop its own spectrum of smartphones, which includes its next flagship product. Further, the deal grants Google “access to HTC’s IP to support the Pixel smartphone family.”
“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,” HTC co-founder Cher Wang said.
Additionally, SVP of Hardware Rick Osterloh said that even though the two companies have yet to find a new work location for these 4,000 employees, their goal is to bring minimal disruption to them.
This deal has been on the horizon since last year when the company enlisted HTC to make the Pixel phones that Alphabet’s subsidiary created. Prior to that, Google had given away its Android system to device makers (HTC among them) to ensure that customers of HTC devices would always use the search engine, along with the maps and YouTube functions, that the company offers.
The deal is forecast to be approved and finalized by early next year.
Featured Image: twitter
