Late Friday, Taiwan’s Investment Commission approved Google’s $1.1 billion acquisition of HTC’s ODM business which was originally announced in late September. With the approval granted, the deal between Google and HTC is expected to close in Q1 of 2018.
HTC’s stock price jumped nearly 6% on Monday and is expected to continue to climb in 2018. The deal with Google will allow HTC to offload more than 2,000 of its R&B employees to Google, reducing the company’s operating costs by 30-40%.
While having an extra $1.1 billion in cash will allow HTC to spend a bit more money on marketing and continue to develop its HTC Vive VR business, the reduction in operating costs will likely allow HTC to turn a profit in Q2 of 2018 even if sales of its flagship smartphones continue to disappoint.
Source: Taiwanese News
