Agreement comes after HTC stocks stopped trading last night
Google and HTC has announced a cooperation agreement worth $1.1 billion (£815Mn) that will see HTC staff move across to Google to work on the Pixel smartphone.
A lot of the staff moving over the Google are already working on the Pixel smartphone and, away from the deal, Google will also have non-exclusive access to HTC intellectual property to use on the Pixel smartphones.
HTC has committed to continue to bringing smartphones to market but will do so with a smaller portfolio and is currently working on a successor to the flagship U11 device.
The Taiwanese manufacturer has also said that it will continue to invest in their virtual reality VIVE headset, building a range of products to support it as well as investing in IoT, augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
HTC chairwoman and CEO Cher Wang said: “At HTC, we are very proud of our history of innovation and our smartphone value chain and system integration capabilities have supported Google in bolstering the Android market.
“This agreement enables Google to improve their hardware business and ensures continued innovation at HTC and VIVE.”
Stop the stocks
Last night HTC announced that their stocks would not trade today which sparked further speculation of an acquisition of the manufacturer by Google.
Google senior vice president of hardware Rick Osterloh said: “HTC has been a longtime 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.”
