Google to pay $1.1 billion for HTC’s Pixel division

Acquisition is part of the firm’s broader push into hardware

Alphabet Inc.’s Google said it

would pay $1.1 billion for the

division at Taiwan’s HTC

Corp. that develops the U.S.

firm’s Pixel smartphones 

its second major foray into

phone hardware after an

earlier costly failure.

The all-cash deal will see

Google gain 2,000 HTC em-

ployees, roughly equivalent

to one fifth of the Taiwanese

firm’s total workforce. It will

also acquire a non-exclusive

licence for HTC’s intellectual

property and the two firms

agreed to look at other areas

of collaboration in future.

'Hardware push'

The move is part of a

broader and still nascent

push into hardware that saw

Google hire Rick Osterloh, a

former Motorola executive,

to run its hardware division

last year. It also comes ahead

of new product launches on

October 4 that are expected

to include two Pixel phones

and a Chromebook.