- Jan 5, 2011
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HTC has been struggling from some missteps lately, not the least of which was their overly expensive acquisition of a 50.1 percent stake in Beats by Dre Audio. HTC hoped to define themselves from the rest of the smartphone pack by appealing to the audiophile in smartphone users. This marketing concept fell flat on its face, because the vast majority of users, simply didn't care about this with their smartphone. It's not that users didn't like the quality head-phone and audio technology. It simply wasn't the "killer app" that would draw people's interest away from competitors. Aesthetics and a wide range of added software functionality seems to be far more important to smartphone buyers. This is why Samsung and Apple have come to dominate the smartphone world.
It seems like HTC realized this at some point this year and has been taking great strides to try and rectify the situation. They released the amazing HTC One Series, which truly harkens back to the superior design quality and feature-set from when HTC was the king of the Android hill. Apparently, HTC is also getting other parts of their house in order as well. They recently announced that they are selling back half of their stake in Beats by Dre Audio for $150 Million dollars. HTC will still be the largest outside shareholder of Beats by Dre, but they will no longer be a controlling interest.
This sale-back will actually be at a small loss (they originally purchased the 50.1% for $309 Million), but it will give them some much needed operating capitol to help get them back in the game. It will allow them to gracefully focus on what matters, while distancing themselves from their costly mistake, although they will still maintain the Beats by Dre logo exclusivity.
Source: AndroidAuthority
