Google to buy part of HTC for $1.1B

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s struggling smartphone maker HTC said on Thursday it would sell part of its smartphone business to Google for $1.1 billion as the US giant looks to take greater control of its hardware business.

Google will take on half of HTC’s research and development staff -- about 2,000 people -- many of whom have already been working on the Silicon Valley firm’s Pixel handset, as well as intellectual property (IP) licensing.