Lenovo has made it very clear it wants to sell its smartphones outside of China, so it can continue to build on its already pretty impressive five percent global market share. However, it hasn’t made the jump yet. Now, a new rumor has suggested Lenovo executives have met with those from HTC to talk about a possible acquisition.
The report says the two companies began discussing a possible deal back in August, and that it would leave the HTC brand intact, at least for a start. This could give Lenovo a quick and easy (but expensive) way into international markets, building on HTC’s good name and existing, strong connections with U.S. and European networks.
For HTC, it could be a way to stay afloat. The company has recently posted its first ever quarterly loss for the past three months of the year, while rival Samsung – and the primary source of HTC’s pain – posted record profits. Analysts speaking to the BBC said there were no signs of HTC recovering from its downward slide anytime soon. Acquisition talks, then, are inevitable.
You can’t blame Lenovo for pouncing on HTC either, as its acquisition of IBM’s computer division in 2005 smoothed the road into international PC markets, in which it has found considerable success. It worked then, so why wouldn’t it work now?
At the moment though, this is all speculation, and nothing has been confirmed by HTC or Lenovo. In fact, Lenovo has already partially announced the phone range with which it’ll be spearheading an international rollout. During the launch of the Vibe Z and Vibe X, Lenovo’s group vice president said the range was aimed at both younger buyers and international markets. The Vibe Z has a 5.5-inch screen, a quad-core Snapdragon 800, and a 13-megapixel camera, and would compete with the Galaxy Note 3 should it ever be released outside China.
If HTC’s future is truly uncertain, we’d much rather it continued making phones thanks to outside investment, than it to disappear without a trace.
