HTC weren’t short on cash back in 2011 when they purchased 50.1% of Beats Electronics for a cool $300 million.
But, just a year later HTC sold half of its’ stake back to Beats Electronics and in doing so, gave up control of the company.
It seems the cutthroat world of smartphones has been taking its toll on HTC, their flagship device the HTC One has been losing ground to the Samsung Galaxy range, even though the One is a great phone.
And their Windows Phones haven’t been doing well either, with over 80% of Windows Phones sold being a Nokia device.
Maybe it’s all getting to them as they’ve decided to sell their remaining shares in Beats Electronics back to the company, which will net HTC $85 million in cash along with a promissory payment repayment which amounts to $150 million and incurred interest too.
It’s not clear where this leaves Beats Audio with HTC phones, presumably HTC will have to pay a license fee to continue using it – and I suspect they’ll gladly pay as they tout Beats Audio as an exclusive HTC feature.
Source: Bloomberg
