Google is set to deepen its smartphone manufacturing operations with an agreement to buy assets from the struggling Taiwanese hardware maker HTC.
The purchase highlights the growing importance of hardware to Google as it seeks to entrench its advertising and internet services, particularly in the high end of the smartphone market, while also laying the ground for wider use of its artificial intelligence.
The purchase involves part of HTC’s design and engineering operations, as well as some of the Taiwanese company’s intellectual property, according to two people familiar with the terms. The purchase price was likely to be between $500m-$1bn, the sources said.
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