Google ties up billion-dollar HTC smartphone deal

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has agreed a $1.1bn deal with Google in order to expand its operations.

While Google will not take a stake in the tech firm, it will take on a number of staff from HTC and a licence for HTC’s intellectual property as it aims to boost its own hardware operations.

Despite promising beginnings, HTC was unable to sustain its competition of smartphones from the likes of Apple and Samsung.

Google senior vice president of hardware Rick Osterloh said in a blog post on Thursday that it was still "early days" for the tech giant in terms of its hardware, but after launching the Google Pixel phone last year he hopes to delve further into the market.

“That’s why we’ve signed an agreement with HTC, a leader in consumer electronics, that will fuel even more product innovation in the years ahead,” said Osterloh.

“With this agreement, a team of HTC talent will join Google as part of the hardware organization. These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks we’ve already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line, and we're excited to see what we can do together as one team.”

Shares in the Taiwanese company were suspended on Wednesday following reports of the deal with the Alphabet-owned firm.