Remember that rumor that said Google might be interested in buying HTC? Well, it looks like we could learn more about it this week.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange has revealed that trading of HTC’s shares will be halted on September 21st due to an announcement. Meanwhile, Evan Blass has received a tip that HTC is holding a town hall meeting for its employees on that same date and that one alleged topic is a Google acquisition.
Blass’s source adds that HTC and Google have reached a deal that’ll see Google acquire certain hardware engineering assets from HTC, but that HTC will hold on to its brand.
In response to these reports of a possible Google deal, HTC has issued a statement that reads “HTC does not comment on market rumor or speculation.”
HTC has been struggling in the smartphone business in recent years, and it’s been expected that HTC would have to do something soon. Now it looks like the company may be striking a deal with Google that would get Google some hardware manufacturing operations that it could use for future Pixel operations. This deal could also allow HTC to retain its brand for other purposes, like the HTC Vive virtual reality headset.