Days after a rumor suggested that HTC is considering its strategic options, a new report has surfaced that claims that the company may sell its smartphone business to another major mobile player.
HTC has entered the final stages of talks to sell its smartphone business to Google. That’s according to Digitimes, who cites a report from China’s Commercial Times.
Google is considering becoming a strategic partner of HTC’s as well as straight up buying HTC’s smartphone business. If a deal with Google is made, it’ll reportedly not include HTC’s Vive virtual reality business.
At one time, HTC was one of the biggest companies in the smartphone world. Things have changed in recent years, though, and HTC’s smartphone business has suffered.
Google and HTC worked together last year on Google’s Pixel phones, and it’s rumored that HTC is once again making the still unannounced Pixel 2 this year. It remains to be seen what kind of deal Google and HTC could cut, but Google could partner with HTC to help keep the company making its Pixel phones. If Google straight up buys HTC’s smartphone business, it’d be interesting to see how the deal would work out differently than when Google bought Motorola, which it then sold to Lenovo two years later.