
HTC in final negotiations to sell smartphone business to Google - dhd415
http://www.droid-life.com/2017/09/07/report-htc-final-negotiations-sell-smartphone-business-google/
======
scarface74
Google just went down this road with Motorola a few years ago, How is this
time going to be any different?

~~~
dhd415
Some speculate that the Motorola acquisition was for their patent portfolio
rather than their product line. I don't know how much credence to give that
theory. An argument in favor of it is how quickly the Motorola phone business
(minus the patents) was sold off to Motorola and an argument against it is
that Motorola's former patents don't seem to be especially valuable to Google.

~~~
abhi3
I think the idea was to keep a defensive portfolio of patents so Google could
threaten to countersue Apple or Microsoft if they ever went after an Android
OEM. Kind of like a Tech company version of a nuclear deterrent.

~~~
dhd415
Yes, although everything that I've read suggests that Motorola's patent
portfolio was light on anything related to smartphones so it provides little
in the way of a litigation deterrent for competitors of Google or Android
OEMs.

~~~
refulgentis
That argument seems shallow, though, you could use it to say was incredibly
effective - Android OEMs didn't get sued after that!

------
comstock
This would be interesting. Currently Google makes a loss on Android
development and licensing. They make this money back by using Android as a
marketing/advertising vehicle for their other products.

If they were making significant money through selling phones directly that
could change the dynamic.

~~~
elefanten
But the whole point is that HTC hasn't been able to do that in years.

It's not immediately clear why Google would be better positioned to do so with
these assets

~~~
riku_iki
Google has much stronger brand and marketing and will have vertical
integration: new phone can have exclusive features like assistant, Google
home, chromecast, Google VR integration etc.

Another question is Google didn't succeed with Motorola, what will be
different with HTC now? Experience?

~~~
amiga-workbench
The Motorola situation was baffling, the first generation Moto X, G and E
handsets were non-nexus phones finally done bloody right, and as far as I know
they flew off the shelves (especially the Moto G)

I know the margins were pretty thin but I don't know how they could consider
that anything but a success.

------
kevin_b_er
What other business units does HTC have besides the smartphone business?
They've got the Vive, but I thought manufacturing smartphones was the majority
of their business. If that's sold to Google, what's left of the business?

~~~
contingencies
Because they are a stock market listed company, the way to check this is to
read their annual report[0], which can be found by searching 'htc annual
report'. The latest is from 2016, published March 2017. _VR_ and _Healthcare_
are listed.

Interestingly, HTC bought a company I used to work for way back in 2010, that
was focused on cross-platform mobile video solutions (including content
discovery/DRM/licensing). They sold it like a hot potato only a year later
after apparently changing corporate strategy, I suspect for legal reasons (we
had large contracts with most rival manufacturers: Nokia/Sony
Ericsson/LG/Samsung/etc.). They also bought the _Beats_ brand in 2011, which
IIRC has recently been acquired by Apple. For a nominally famously 'engineer
run organization' HTC certainly seems to vacillate in its strategic
development.

[0] [http://media.corporate-
ir.net/media_files/IROL/14/148697/Ann...](http://media.corporate-
ir.net/media_files/IROL/14/148697/AnnualReports/2016HTC-Annual_Report-
English.pdf)

------
mankash666
HTC offers no value add to Google. The future, as seen in financials, is in
vertical integration.

The Samsung and LGs of the world make their own screens, storage, RAM, ...
They can compete at the lower end on cost, and their vertical integration
allows them profits to innovate at the top end. HTC has no expertise, either
in a particular component, or in software.

------
TwoNineA
Motorola 2.0?

~~~
elefanten
Launder it for a year, sell off the bits you don't like.

------
amiga-workbench
This is kinda sad, but HTC havent released a really solid phone since the One
M7.

After Scott Croyle left their design work really suffered too, the M7 wiped
the floor with what Apple were doing design-wise at the time.

------
otp124
We've come full circle rather quickly.

------
sooperb
I don't know why I had always felt that Apple would end up buying this.

------
ProAm
Google Vive coming soon!

~~~
devmunchies
Smartphone business. No Vive.

------
egberts1
I would no longer shop for HTC if this follows through. #Privacy

~~~
mikestew
You should probably not shop for HTC right now:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/6nkks8/the_standar...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/6nkks8/the_standard_keyboard_on_the_htc_10_has_begun/)

Granted, mistakes look to have been honestly made on the part of some, but the
fact that this made it out the door is all I need to know.

~~~
Grue3
Yeah, and Samsung had their phones fucking explode. I'd take an occasional
stray ad over that any day of the week. That said it's a shame that HTC
discontinued their own apps, which were excellent and started to rely on
second-party shitware.

