In the third quarter of the year of 2017, truthful information emerged that Google was about to buy part of the HTC smartphone team, but only now have the necessary approvals been made and the purchase is complete.
With this acquisition, in addition to the transfer of more than 2.000 engineers from HTC, Google will also receive a non-exclusive license to the intellectual property of HTC. HTC will maintain its division that works with virtual reality and will continue to make its own smartphones.
What does Google gain from this acquisition?
The deal will boost futures hardware significantly by delivering a portion of Google's own smartphone HTC, many of whom worked on Google's Pixel hardware (which was outsourced to HTC) and other HTC devices that, while much lauded, did not sell in large volumes.
Second, it gives Google a vast new base of engineering in Taiwan, where HTC is located. This makes the location the largest Google engineering site in Asia Pacific, and is likely to be the source of new company products in the future.
Apart from that, the company announced plans to open an Artificial Intelligence laboratory in Beijing, its first location in China, while it is also about to open a base in Shenzhen, the Chinese city seen as the “Hardware Silicon Valley”.
