According to a new report that surfaced in Taiwan, Google and HTC have entered the ‘final stage of negotiation’ when it comes to the sale of HTC’s smartphone business. This is not the first time such reports are surfacing, though, we’ve seen quite a few such reports in the last year or two, and nothing came out of them, will it this time, though? Well, according to Commercial Times, a Taiwanese news publication, it will, read on.
Now, according to this report, Google is actually considering two options when HTC is concerned, either to become HTC’s strategic partner, or buy the company’s entire smartphone business. Do keep in mind that the HTC Vive is not included here, HTC’s Vive business is something completely different and is not a part of the company’s mobile unit. Now, this report comes straight from Commercial Times, and the publication did not share a source for such claims, but HTC is not doing that well at all, at least in terms of finances. The HTC U11 was praised by various publications, and it was selling rather well for the company, but it seems like that was nowhere near enough for HTC. August was actually HTC’s worst month in the past 13 years, which is saying a lot. The company’s revenue actually dropped by 51.5 percent compared to July, and in comparison to August last year, it dropped 54.3 percent. As you can see, things are not looking that great for HTC, and this buyout report seems more probable than ever.
The HTC U11 was announced back in May, and it was selling rather well in the first couple of months of availability, it managed to keep HTC somewhat afloat, but the phone’s sales wore off, and the company’s revenue dropped quite a bit. HTC has been having such issues for quite some time now, this Taiwan-based company is simply not able to sell enough devices. For those of you who do not know, HTC partnered up with Google a couple of times thus far, this Taiwan-based company actually manufactured both the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL, even though Google designed both phones. It seems like HTC will manufacture the Google Pixel 2 as well, at least according to reports, though LG might be the company behind the Google Pixel XL 2. These are only rumors for now, though, so take this info with a grain of salt.