HTC Announces XR Agreement with Google
- Google to pay HTC US$250 million; certain members of HTC XR team to join Google
- Google receives non-exclusive license to HTC XR IP
- Agreement to drive the growth of the XR ecosystem
TAIPEI, Taiwan – January 23rd, 2025 – HTC Corp. (TWSE: 2498) and Google LLC announced today a definitive agreement under which HTC will receive US$250 million in cash from Google, and certain HTC employees from its XR team will join Google. As part of the transaction, Google will receive a non-exclusive license for HTC’s XR intellectual property (IP). Following this agreement, HTC and Google will explore future collaboration opportunities.
This agreement reinforces HTC’s strategy of continued development around the XR ecosystem, enabling a more streamlined product portfolio with a focus on platforms, greater operational efficiency and financial flexibility. HTC’s commitment to delivering innovative VIVE XR solutions such as the VIVE Focus Vision remains unchanged, with existing product lines and solutions to be supported and developed without interruption.
For Google, this agreement helps to further strengthen its commitment to the Android XR platform and its acceleration across the headset and glasses ecosystem, which will help drive the XR industry. The transfer to Google of a strong technical team with a proven track record in the VR/XR space builds upon Google’s significant investment in Taiwan as a key innovation and technology hub.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in Q1 2025.
Evercore served as financial advisor to HTC and Gibson Dunn and Tsar & Tsai acted as legal counsel.
Disclaimer: This press release contains forward‐looking statements which may include projections of future results of operations, financial condition or business prospects based on our own information and other sources. Actual results of operations, financial condition or business prospects may differ from those expressed or implied in these forward‐looking statements for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to market demand, price fluctuations, competition, international economic conditions, supply chain issues, exchange rate fluctuations and other risks and factors beyond our control. The forward‐looking statements in this release reflect the current belief of HTC as of the date of this release. HTC undertakes no obligation to update these forward‐looking statements for events or circumstances that occur subsequent to such date.