The Google and HTC deal is official, it’s just not quite what we were expecting. Google isn’t buying HTC outright, à la Motorola; instead, Google and HTC have signed an agreement to send some of HTC’s employees over to Google, while HTC gets a $ 1.1 billion cash infusion. The deal also includes a non-exclusive license for HTC’s intellectual property.
While earlier rumors pointed to an outright acquisition of HTC by Google, with this deal HTC remains an independent company, and will still manufacture smartphones. Google is acquiring some of HTC’s employees but not any of the Taiwan company’s factories. Manufacturing facilities are more of a liability today in the smartphone business than anything, with even Apple, the king of vertical integration, outsourcing that work to companies like Foxconn.
On Google’s side, the deal was announced by SVP of Hardware and former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh. In a blog post, Osterloh said, “With this agreement, a team of HTC talent will join Google as part of the hardware organization. These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks we’ve already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line, and we’re excited to see what we can do together as one team.”
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