Sept. 21 (UPI) — Google has signed a deal to increase its focus on hardware manufacturing by acquiring members from HTC’s smartphone team.
Rick Osterloh, Google’s vice president of hardware, announced the company has signed an agreement with Taiwanese hardware manufacturer HTC to acquire members primarily from its Pixel smartphone team.
“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,” he said.
HTC will receive $1.1 billion in the deal and will continue to manufacture its own smartphones and the VIVE virtual reality system.
The deal will also provide Google a non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property.
Google and HTC had previously worked together to produce first Android smartphone, the T-Mobile G1,as well as the Nexus One smartphone in 2010, the Nexus 9 tablet in 2014, and the Pixel smartphone in 2016.
“HTC has been a longtime partner and has created some of the most beautiful, high-end devices on the market,” Osterloh said. “We can’t wait to welcome members of the HTC team to join us on this journey.”
