Google purportedly close to acquiring HTC's smartphone division

It's no secret that HTC has been struggling in the saturated smartphone market. The Taiwanese company was once a major player in the handheld world during its prime Evo 4G LTE days but has since been spiraling towards obsolescence in the face of Samsung, Apple, and rising Chinese stars.

Perhaps the sole bright spot for HTC has been its partnership with Google involving the production of the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. Pair this with HTC's abysmal smartphone sales and talks of an acquisition with Google may not be out of the question. According to DigiTimes, Google is reportedly considering a deeper relationship with HTC from penning stronger contracts to flat-out buying HTC's entire smartphone arm. The source claims that revenue totaled $99.69 million USD for the month of August to represent a sharp decline of 54.4 percent from a year earlier even after the very recent release of the excellent HTC 11.

While nothing has been confirmed, the timing of these rumors comes just a week after Bloomberg revealed that HTC would be exploring "strategic options" with Google. Should Google absorb HTC's smartphone business, the Taiwanese manufacturer can refocus its efforts on the Vive VR without being dragged down by its smartphone division.

From Google's point of view, the search giant is likely wary of the acquisition after its $12.5 billion USD investment in Motorola Mobility turned sour three years later. The Motorola Xoom and Xoom 2 were such failures that Google eventually sold off Motorola to Lenovo for only $2.91 billion in 2014.

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