Skip to main content

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has advised Google on a $1.1 billion deal with Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC – represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher – to purchase the division that helped develop the U.S. tech giant’s Pixel smartphone.

Taiwanese firms Lee & Li and Tsar & Tsai were also involved in the acquisition, acting as local counsel for Google and HTC, respectively. Slaughter and May advised Google on the competition law aspects of the deal.

The all-cash transaction, which is expected to close in early next year, will see Google gain 2,000 HTC employees – roughly equivalent to one fifth of the Taoyuan-headquartered firm’s total workforce, according to Reuters. Google will also secure a non-exclusive license for HTC’s intellectual property, and the two firms agreed to look at other areas of collaboration in the future. 

This will be Google’s second major foray into phone hardware after a previous costly failure. In 2012, Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion but sold it off to Lenovo Group just two years later for less than $3 billion. 

For HTC, whose market share of smartphones globally has been declining since 2011, the deal will allow it to concentrate more on its virtual reality headsets while also reducing development costs, reported Reuters.  

Partners Glenn McGrory, Ethan Klingsberg,  Aaron Meyers, Michael Albano, Daniel Ilan, Corey Goodman and Francisco Enrique González-Díaz handled the deal for Cleary.

Natalie Yeung led the Slaughters team on the competition law aspects.

Related Articles

Luthra, AZB, CAM act on JSW Steel’s $482 mln acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Electrical

by Nimitt Dixit |

Luthra and Luthra Law Offices India, along with AZB & Partners, advised a consortium of JSW Steel and JFE Steel Corporation and their JV on their $482.1 million proposed acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel India, which was represented by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

TT&A, Khaitan, AZB guide Macquarie-backed Blueleaf’s $400 mln India solar bet

by Nimitt Dixit |

Talwar Thakore & Associates and AZB & Partners have advised Singapore-based Blueleaf Energy (BLE) on its $400 million investment in 1 gigawatt of solar projects in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan owned by Jakson Green, which was represented by Khaitan & Co.

CAM, Trilegal, Khaitan, IndusLaw act on HUL’s $350 mln Minimalist deal

by Nimitt Dixit |

In the first big M&A deal in India this year, leading firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has guided FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) on its acquisition of 90.5 percent stake in Jaipur-based skincare startup Minimalist for close to $350 million (29.5 billion rupees).