Google and HTC get into a $1.1 billion agreement

Rumors had been rife that Google and HTC were up to something. It has finally been established that the tech behemoth and the dying smartphone manufacturer have entered an agreement. Google will be paying HTC a sum of $1.1 billion that will enable Google to non-exclusively access HTC’s intellectual property along with some of its employees going over to Google.

This deals seems very similar to the one Google cracked with Motorola when they bought it and then sold it to Lenovo at the price of peanuts. HTC has been the manufacturer behind the Pixel phones and is rumoured to be behind the generation 2 Pixel phones too. Rick Osterlog, Senior VP of Hardware at Google said:

“HTC has been a long time partner of Google and has created some of the most beautiful, premium devices on the market. 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.”

The clause that some of the employees will be moving to Google, is something that hints towards the tech giant’s commitment towards expanding its smartphone business since it is picking up employees who have been working on the Google and Pixel projects. Google win no way has taken over the mobile manufacturing part and HTC will continue to focus on its Vice VR business, AR, and IoT. It is also reported that HTC is gearing up for a successor to the U11.