MANILA, Philippines – Is Google acquiring a stake in Taiwanese phone maker HTC? Some tipsters and leaked documents are pointing to that possibility.

The Next Web on Wednesday, September 20, cited a Bloomberg report from August – which said the company was thinking of splitting off its VR business and engaging in talks with various firms, including Google – as well as some more recent tidbits of information.

Some of the latest bits of information to come out include a tweet from Bloomberg columnist Tim Culpan about HTC suspending its trading for Thursday, September 21, on the Taiwanese stock exchange “pending a major announcement.”

JUST IN:
HTC just announced it’s shares will halt trading tomorrow (Thur) pending a major announcement.

— Tim Culpan (@tculpan) September 20, 2017

Meanwhile, Venturebeat reporter Evan Blass received a copy of an internal invitation for an HTC town hall meeting on Thursday, with a Google acquisition one of the topics to be discussed. The person who leaked the report told Blass that Google “finalized a deal” with HTC to acquire some of its hardware engineering assets, but with HTC retaining its brand.

[2] According to this person, the companies have finalized a deal wherein GOOG will acquire certain HW eng assets, but HTC retains its brand

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 20, 2017

We’ll know in a day or so if these rumors hold true. In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments section! – Rappler.com