Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has signed an agreement with Alphabet subsidiary Google to sell some of its mobile phone businesses to the latter for USD1.1 billion.

With this transaction, HTC's nearly 2,000 employees who worked with the company on its Pixel smartphone will join Google. Meanwhile, HTC will provide non-exclusive licenses to some of its intellectual properties to Google.

Cher Wang, chairman of HTC, said that HTC has been the best promoter for Google's Android market expansion. With this new acquisition agreement, the two parties will further enhance their long-term stable partnership, which will not only inject strong innovative research and development into Google's hardware business, but also will ensure HTC's continuous innovation in smartphone and VR sectors.

It is said that the acquisition does not involve factory transfer. In addition, HTC's chief financial officer Peter Shen revealed at a press conference that except for those employees who will transfer to Google, HTC currently does not have any layoff plan.