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This much we think we know: Google and HTC are in the “final stages of acquisition talks,” according to a report Thursday by Business Insider, citing a translation from the Taiwanese Commercial Times. The Commercial Times doesn’t say what Google would pay for HTC’s phone business, according to the report.
That lack of detail raises some questions. Is it for all of the phone business, as the report suggests, or is it only for HTC’s phone R&D team, which is what a UBS note to investors says? The UBS note also cites the Commercial Times.
Such a deal would potentially benefit Google because “deeper integration of hardware/software would offset some of the Android fragmentation issues that do not plague Apple iOS,” UBS said.
Google doesn’t respond to rumors, the company said in an email.
The search and software giant already offers its own phone, the Google Pixel, and is rumored to launch a new version on Oct. 5.
