Dialling up a deal: Google swoops on HTC’S engineering division

Google has agreed to buy part of device maker HTC for $1.1 billion(£814million)toexpand its efforts to build phones, speakers and other gadgets equipped with its arsenal of digital services. It is buying the HTC engineering team that built the Pixel smartphone for Google in a cash deal, the companies said. Google is also getting a non-exclusive licence for Taiwan-based HTC’S intellectual property to help support Pixel phones. The deal underscores how serious Google is becoming about designing its own family of devices.