The Essence of the Deal
On September 21, 2017, Google and HTC announced an agreement: Google would pay US$1.1 billion in cash and receive about 2,000 HTC employees (mainly the team that had worked on the Pixel and Pixel XL, "Powered by HTC"), as well as a non-exclusive license to HTC's patents. The deal closed on January 30, 2018. HTC kept its brand, its factory, the remaining smartphone team and VIVE.
Background
- HTC built the Nexus One (2010), Nexus 9 (2014) and the first Pixel/Pixel XL (2016).
- By 2017, HTC's smartphone business had been loss-making for several years in a row.
- Google wanted its own hardware engineering team (like its 2011 purchase of Motorola, which was sold to Lenovo in 2014) without acquiring a whole company.
What HTC Got
- Money for restructuring and a focus on VIVE.
- Lower smartphone costs: the engineers who left for Google made up about a fifth of the staff.
- The continued release of smartphones (U12+, U19e, Desire), but without ambitions for flagships.
What Google Got
- An experienced hardware team in Taipei (together with Google's Taiwan office, this became the basis of the Pixel hardware division).
- A license to a patent portfolio (HTC owns thousands of patents, including those bought from S3 Graphics).
- The Pixel 2 XL was ultimately made by LG, but the Pixel 3 and later models were already designed by a team of former HTC employees.
The Second Deal (2024–2025)
In 2024, Google agreed to buy part of the HTC VIVE XR team for $250 million (closing in January 2025) with a non-exclusive license to XR intellectual property. This strengthened Google's work on Android XR (together with Samsung). HTC said it would continue to release VIVE headsets.