Google snares HTC talent

Google has agreed to buy part of HTC’s engineering and design teams for $1.1 billion (€923m), taking on a cadre of veterans that worked on the Pixel phone and could bolster its nascent hardware business.

Alphabet’s Google is taking on some 2,000 employees with experience working on its signature Pixel devices, intended to showcase the best features of the Android software that now power the vast majority of the world’s smartphones.

The deal also comes with a non-exclusive licensing agreement for HTC intellectual property.