Google Finalizes Billion Dollar Deal with HTC

[Navbryce]

The news is pretty short (and sweet): Article from Ars Technica

 

Quote

Just a few months ago, Google and HTC announced a deal that would see HTC sell a big chunk of its phone division to Google for $1.1 billion. Today, Google announced that the deal has closed, and the HTC employees are officially joining Google.

In short, HTC sold a majority of its phone division to Google for a little more than a billion dollars. Google officially announced the deal's closure (completion) today. 

 

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For Google, the deal will bolster the hardware group, which was formed in 2016 under former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh. The Google Pixel, Pixel XL, and Pixel 2 smartphones were a collaboration between Google and HTC, and these 2,000 HTC employees are the ones that made up the Pixel team inside HTC. Bringing the team in-house should give Google more control over the smartphone design process, presumably bringing more unity to the Pixel line and deeper integration of hardware and software.

Google wants HTC mobile employees to augment their existing mobile division. Both the Google Pixel (Standard and XL) and Google Pixel 2 were a collaborative effort between Google's mobile team and HTC. The article states that by purchasing part of HTC, Google wants to improved control in the design process and more unity between the pixel phones. In other words, Google wants to be more independent from third-parties. They don't want to rely on companies like HTC (and LG) to design and manufacture their phones.

 

So why did HTC sell such a large portion of their company?

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For HTC, the deal is a big cash infusion at a time when the company is struggling financially. With HTC burning through about $75 million each quarter, Google's money gives it over three years of money to burn at the current rate.

HTC is hemorrhaging money. Their mobile division has had a couple big flops with the HTC One M9 and especially the HTC U Ultra. 

 

 

As a former HTC One M8 owner and a current Google Pixel 2 user, I'm extremely excited about this deal. I don't know if it will help Google improve the quality of their phones, but it at least implies that Google will continue the Pixel series. Maybe Google will even be able to compete with the Samsung Galaxy and IPhone (in market share) in a couple years...

[Himommies]

So HTC is the new Motorola

 

[dtaflorida]

Soon to be sold to some Chinese company like Motorola.

[Drak3]

Drugs are bad, m'kay Google.

4 minutes ago, Himommies said:

So HTC is the new Motorola

 

No, HTC made some worthwhile smartphones in their lifetime.

[DildorTheDecent]

What even is HTC anymore? Just the Vive by the looks of it.

[suicidalfranco]

6 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Drugs are bad, m'kay Google.

No, HTC made some worthwhile smartphones in their lifetime.

So did Moto, look how that went

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

So did Moto

Okay, worthwhile smartphones in this universe.

[suicidalfranco]

17 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Okay, worthwhile smartphones in this universe.

RAZR, Atrix and every Droid where all part of this universe

[Drak3]

7 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

RAZR, Atrix and every Droid where all part of this universe

How 'bout that. They are. Doesn't change what I said.

[suicidalfranco]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

How 'bout that. They are. Doesn't change what I said.

 

39 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

No, HTC made some worthwhile smartphones in their lifetime.

only one, the M7

downhill ever since

yeah, they'll meet the same fate if not worse, worst being not even have the likes of lenovo keeping them around 

[Navbryce]

8 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

 

only one, the M7

downhill ever since

yeah, they'll meet the same fate if not worse, worst being not even have the likes of lenovo keeping them around 

I liked the M8 :). Terrible camera though. Also the Pixel 2 is manufactured by HTC, and (so far) it seems to be made well--unlike LG's Pixel 2 XL.

[suicidalfranco]

5 minutes ago, Navbryce said:

I liked the M8 :). Terrible camera though. Also the Pixel 2 is manufactured by HTC, and (so far) it seems to be made well--unlike LG's Pixel 2 XL.

but the pixel 2 came after google had officially announced they'd be taking HTC mobile division

 

 

[Navbryce]

2 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

but the pixel 2 came after google had officially announced they'd be taking HTC mobile division

 

 

True, but the deal hadn't gone through yet.

[DocSwag]

21 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

 

only one, the M7

downhill ever since

yeah, they'll meet the same fate if not worse, worst being not even have the likes of lenovo keeping them around 

I disagree. The M8, 10, and U11 were all pretty good, it's just HTC didn't have the brand recognition and marketing money to compete with people like Samsung, even if they did sometimes have the better product (IMO the 10 could be considered a better phone than the S7 in many aspects).

 

13 minutes ago, Navbryce said:

I liked the M8 :). Terrible camera though. Also the Pixel 2 is manufactured by HTC, and (so far) it seems to be made well--unlike LG's Pixel 2 XL.

The main problem with the XL is the screen. Everything else so far seems fine.

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, Himommies said:

So HTC is the new Motorola

Hopefully since Motorola is the new Lenovo and well, after a nice comeback after Google and Moto X they suck now...again.

[PocketNerd]

I'm not exactly a fan of Vertical Integration... Just makes the illusion of choice that much greater.

[NumLock21]

Title made it sound like as if Google just suddenly called off the deal. 

 

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

 

only one, the M7

downhill ever since

yeah, they'll meet the same fate if not worse, worst being not even have the likes of lenovo keeping them around 

I really liked the HTC One X and the M8. Thought more than once about buying it. Samsung needs tips from HTC about design!

[NumLock21]

I have the M7. Never dropped it or anything and a small crack on the lcd appeared out of no where. Started out at 1mm and grew to the entire length of the screen, making the entire right side unusable. 

[Canada EH]

2 hours ago, Navbryce said:

HTC

Thanks, now I will stay well away from buying anything HTC, because they will then record your convo's and send the data back to Google HQ.

[BuckGup]

1 hour ago, DildorTheDecent said:

What even is HTC anymore? Just the Vive by the looks of it.

Funny because the Vive was racking in more than their phone department

[Navbryce]

29 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Title made it sound like as if Google just suddenly called off the deal. 

 

Updated title with a less-confusing word

[dizmo]

Good move for Google to make. HTC has a pretty solid hardware team. I don't think we'll ever see Google on the same level as Samsung, mostly because of device pricing. Samsung, aside from offering incentives for selling their phones, invests far more in marketing and as a result are seen as the go to Android handset. If Google chose to subsidize their phones or offer them at lower prices then they could gain more market share.

But really, why would they want to? As long as an Android device sells, they're happy.

[Navbryce]

11 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Good move for Google to make. HTC has a pretty solid hardware team. I don't think we'll ever see Google on the same level as Samsung, mostly because of device pricing. Samsung, aside from offering incentives for selling their phones, invests far more in marketing and as a result are seen as the go to Android handset. If Google chose to subsidize their phones or offer them at lower prices then they could gain more market share.

But really, why would they want to? As long as an Android device sells, they're happy.

Fair points. Google gave free Google Home Mini's to people who bought Pixel 2's within a certain amount of time, which was a pretty good incentive for me. I guess they're trying to get as many Google "ecosystem" hooks into customers as possible.

[Drak3]

13 minutes ago, dizmo said:

invests far more in marketing and as a result are seen as the go to Android handset

That, and the fact that Samsung introduced a huge deal of features that made Android what it is today.