Rumors have been popping up across the interwebs about Google planning to buy HTC’s mobile division. Turns out those rumors are actually closer to the truth.
According to Commercial Times, a Chinese news site, Google is in the final stages of negotiations with HTC about buying out its smartphone division.
Rough Times for HTC
HTC has been through tough times since the launch of its flagship phone HTC One M9 a few years ago. The Taiwanese company struggled to become relevant again in the smartphone realm with the HTC 10 and more recently, U11.
However, it just wasn’t enough to propel HTC towards the top of the market again. Digitimes reported that the company’s revenues in August this year were the lowest in 13 years.
If not Google, someone else might have bought out HTC’s smartphone division.
Reports say that Google is only after the smartphone side of the business and HTC’s remaining businesses will continue working normally.
Reportedly, the deal will be finalized by the end of the year. When reached for comment. both companies refused to say anything further on the matter.
Buying (And Selling) Motorola
This isn’t the first mobile venture on Google’s side. The Mountain View-based search engine giant bought Motorola back in 2012 for $12.5 billion.
However, later on Google would go on to sell Motorola to Lenovo just 2 years later for $3 billion.
That’s not to say that their purchase wasn’t entirely fruitful. The Moto G which launched during that time, changed the landscape of mid-range smartphones completely. The phones were fast, reliable and cheap to boot.
Google partnered with HTC for their critically acclaimed Pixel phones last year. Keeping this in mind, Google’s negotiations to buy HTC has acquired renewed interest amongst the tech circles.
Via BGR
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For patents. They bought Motorola for the same purpose.
Google is not a bright star when it comes to patent trolling. In Moto deal, they suffered dearly. The bling of acquired patents was not worth it. They just must have wanted to safeguard their own interests in mobile OS space. After all, they are still paying royalty of OS patents to Microsoft. Perhaps buying Nokia at that time would have been more meaningful. It would have given them instant access to patents pioneering mobile communications effectively putting them in a place to seek royalty from the likes of Apple.
HTC deal is supposed to give Google a foothold in smartphones niche. I doubt its for the patents if at all.