Officially: For 1.1 Billion Dollars

Google announced on Thursday that it has acquired the division responsible for the manufacture of Pixel Phones affiliated with HTC Taiwan for $ 1.1 billion in cash, in its latest step to enter the Hardware industry.

Google has sought to strengthen its hardware industry through deals and product launches, and last year hired Rick Osterloh, a former Motorola executive, to operate its hardware division.

“For Google, this agreement reinforces its commitment to smartphones and public investment in its emerging hardware business,” the US search giant said in a statement. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed by early 2018.

Under the deal, Google will also receive a non-exclusive license for HTC’s intellectual property, while the Taiwanese company will continue to operate its remaining business in the smart phone industry. Noting that there is an old partnership linking Google with HTC, some analysts estimate that Google’s pixel phones account for 20% of HTC’s shipments of smartphones.

It is also noteworthy that the Taiwanese company, which previously possessed about one tenth of the smart phone market in the world, saw a sharp decline in market share due to the intensification of competition by major companies, such as Samsung South Korea and Apple America, as well as Chinese companies emerging, including So Huawei, Shaoomi, Obo and others.

It should also be noted that Google’s deal with HTC is not the first for the US company in the hardware industry, as it acquired its compatriot Motorola Mobility in 2012 for 12.5 billion US dollars, but sold it after about two years to the Chinese company Lenovo for less than 3 billion dollars.

“We are still in the early days of Google in the hardware world,” Osterloh said in a publication on the company’s blog, adding that the company will focus on combining its best software and hardware offerings with a range of its core products.

Other acquisitions of Google in the hardware sector include the acquisition of the Nest appliance manufacturer Nest for US $ 3.2 billion in 2014, while the devices currently launched by the company’s smart home speaker based on the aid of the digital “Google Home” and glasses Virtual Reality “Dai Dream View”.

Thanks to Google’s strategy of free licensing of its Android operating system and its system-based services such as search, maps, e-mail, and others, Android now dominates the smartphone market with 89% of the global market, “IDC.

With so many Android-based companies in their smartphones offering different and inconsistent system experiences, Google has become frustrated, according to analysts, making its decision to enter the hardware market to provide hardware and software.

On Thursday, HTC stopped trading before the deal was announced, almost two years after the sharp drop. The company’s shares have fallen by 12% so far this year, bringing the market value down to about $ 1.9 billion.

HTC’s global share of smartphones fell to 0.9 percent last year from 8.8 percent in 2011, according to IDC. Google’s pixel phones, manufactured by HTC, have accounted for less than 1% of the market since its launch last year, with shipments estimated at 2.8 million units, according to IDC estimates.