HTC has made some really great smartphones over the years. But even with a decent resume, the company is still struggling to keep itself afloat. No one’s really sure what HTC is doing wrong, other than competing in a market dominated by Samsung, LG, and Apple. To be fair, the company has tried to market gimmicky features or features not always ready for prime time. That strategy could have been one of the things that backfired on them. Now, there are rumblings that Google may be playing a buyout of HTC or possibly a “strategic partnership.”
It is understood that Google is strategic investment or buyout HTC smart phone R & D team to discuss the matter, the negotiations have entered the final stage, the slowest will be completed by the end of the year. ~Translated from Chinese.
Google bought Motorola a few years back and many Android fans were excited to possibly finally have real Google designed and made hardware. The Motorola buy turned out to be nothing more than a play for patents. According to these reports, if there was to be a deal between HTC and Google, it would strictly be for the smartphone part of the business.
Google is currently considering options of either becoming a strategic partner or buying out HTC’s smartphone business, said the report, which added that the possible deal will not involve HTC’s Vive VR business or the entire company.
Digitimes also reported on the financial reasons the company is considering a deal or buyout from Google.
HTC has reported consolidated revenues of NT$3 billion (US$99.69 million) for August, the company’s lowest monthly figures in 13 years. August revenues also represented a decline of 51.5% from the previous month and 54.4% from a year earlier.
HTC’s cumulative sales for the first eight months of 2017 totaled NT$39.86 billion, decreasing 14.4% from a year earlier.
This will be interesting to see if Google makes a buyout play here. What do you think? Is Google finally going to buy its first hardware company? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170907VL202.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Digitimes[/button]
