Google buys the best bits of HTC for $1.1 billion

HTC has accepted $1.1 billion to hand over much of its smartphone engineering talent and IP to Google.

It has been assumptions running around in the technology space that Google may simply buy HTC but in the end Google was able to just pluck out only the parts of the company it wanted. The main acquisition is a reported 2,000 smartphone engineers, many of whom are already working on the Google Pixel phones, which are white-labelled by HTC. On top of that Google gets a non-exclusive license to a bunch of HTC smartphone IP. For this Google is shelling out $1.1 billion which, at first glance, seems like a good deal for 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,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC. “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, SVP of Hardware at Google (pictured above with Wang and a veteran of the Motorola acquisition). “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.”