Google Acquires HTC-Another Compulsive Acquisition?

Google and HTC have just had the compact of brains, with the search giant buying part of the Taiwanese-borne gadget maker for a whopping amount $1.1 billion in September 21st, 2017.

With HTC being a juggernaut in mobile manufacturing back in 2008, with flashy advertisements, this firm has been through conundrums of turmoil: management failures, losses, and budget cuts.

The only time HTC was able to recuperate from the hiccups along the road was with the release of the “Vive” Headset back in 2016. However, HTC will still have the control of manufacturing this product despite having a closed deal with Google.

As part of the agreement, Google will have the manipulative power over sets of HTC employees,  those who have previously collaborated with Pixel development, as well as a license for a chunk of HTC trade strategies. It’s not acquiring the entire company and its products; it has HTC polyglots onboard to morph Google into a more disruptive company.

Like companies that they purchased before, they want only the brains, not the products.

“HTC has been a longtime partner of Google and has created some of the most beautiful, premium devices on the market,” stressed Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of hardware at Google.

Osterloh pointed out how they were “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.”

HTC proclaimed that the firm would continue developing and manufacturing its line phones, such as the HTC U11, that it released earlier this year. The Vive gear mentioned earlier, a virtual reality headset that is just as amazing as Facebook’s Oculus Rift.

Cher Wang, HTC’s chairwoman and CEO commented, “We believe HTC is well positioned to maintain our rich legacy of innovation and realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services.”

HTC’s faced plummeting market value and been on the verge of bankruptcy in recent years, depreciating to about 75% to less than $2 billion back in 2012.

With the dominance of such a huge rival mobile manufacturers like Apple’s iPhone, Huawei, and Samsung’s Galaxy series, HTC’s has seen a depletion in its share of the phone market.

It is just another part of Google’s aggressive yet impulsive approach — acquiring a company that’s a “moribund” to its niche.

Google, having a history of purchasing phone businesses had had plenty of omens before HTC was acquired. The company bought Motorola Mobility for around $13 billion back in 2012, and without much success and after amassing substantial financial losses, Google sold it to Lenovo for less than $3 billion in 2014.

Osterloh continues by saying that “It’s still early for Google’s hardware business,” but that the company is committed to building units and offer the market a new breakthrough.

Will they be able to help HTC rise from the ashes or will it just be a ship taking on water and capsizing into the sea?

Footnote:

Editorial. “Google and HTC enters a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement.” Evertiq – fast news for the global electronics industry, Evertiq.com, 21 Sept. 2017, evertiq.com/news/42602. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017. Evertiq.com Electronics Production | September 21, 2017