But what does Google want with part of a smartphone business? Google isn’t buying the whole of HTC, just a relatively large part of the Taipei-based company’s smartphone business and not its Vive virtual reality headset business. Google gains half of HTC’s research and development team – about 2,000 people – and a non-exclusive license for HTC’s intellectual property, allowing it to take advantage of some of HTC’s advances in smartphone technology. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Google’s Pixel smartphone, made by HTC. Google followed up with a revised Chromebook Pixel in 2015, but it wasn’t until 2016 that the company made its own Pixel Android smartphone.

Source: The Guardian September 21, 2017 14:26 UTC