HTC and Beats have decided to part ways. HTC initially purchased a 50.1% stake in the company for $300 million a little more than two years ago, giving HTC exclusive rights to using Beats Audio technology in mobile devices. A year later, Beats bought half of HTC’s shares and now it paying an additional $265 million for HTC’s remaining 25 ownership.
It’s unclear what the relationship between the two companies will be now that Beat Audio has unplugged from HTC. Since HTC is struggling to keep its head above water, we doubt they will be seeking a licensing agreement with Beats to retain exclusive rights to their mobile audio tech.
We do not know how much Beats paid for the 25% share buyback last year, but the $265 million price for HTC’s remaining shares would imply that the two year investment in Beats Audio was a positive move for the company’s bottom line. HTC’s claims that “anticipated profit from the disposal before tax is approximately
NTD2,520,036,000” – roughly $85 million USD.
Source: HTC
Here’s to hoping HTC make good use of all that cash. I do think that the audio is pretty good on HTC phones, but there’s really only so much you can do with phone speakers. The HTC One Boomsound is amazing, but I don’t think it was necessary to have Beats audio to achieve that.
Ok HTC Now partner with a real innovator in bose.