Google in talks to acquire HTC's smartphone business: report

The tech giant earlier acquired Motorola Mobility but sold it instantly

Google is apparently in talks to acquire all or part of Taiwan-based HTC's smartphone business.

According to a report by a Taiwanese news outlet The Commercial Times, the deal is in its final stages, the CNBC reports.

Last month, another story suggested HTC was interested in being acquired.

HTC was once one of the more popular smartphone makers in the United States but has recently hit a wall with several unsuccessful smartphone launches.



With HTC being well-versed with the Google smartphone domain due to the launch of Google Pixel, which the Taiwanese company helped build, it seems like a deal that would make sense.

Google earlier acquired Motorola Mobility but instantly sold it off, which raises doubts over what Google plans to do with this acquisition if it were to happen.

The report stated that HTC's poor financial position and along with Google's mantra to "perfect the integration of software, content, hardware, network, cloud, and AI," is the driving force behind deal.



They may also simply buy HTC’s smartphone R&D team, which suggests that the HTC Virtual Reality team would exist independent of any Google affiliation.

Google and HTC declined to comment.