Google wants to be a big name in hardware and it's paying $1.1 to get there.
The company announced the partnership with HTC on Wednesday to get access to talent from the HTC team, many of whom are already working on Google's Pixel phones.
Google will also license HTC's intellectual property under the deal But Google stopped short of an anticipated buyout of the Taiwanese smartphone company, perhaps indicating that it's not quite ready to make the kind of big investments it's made in hardware in the past.
Five years ago, the company bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.
Only to sell it at a loss less than two years later.
But Google is no doubt hoping the partnership with HTC will be different.
After all HTC was the manufacturer behind Google's flagship pixel smartphones.
In a market dominated by Apple and Samsung these handsets help Google win new fans in the premium smartphone space.
In a statement today, Google's senior vice president of hardware, Rick Osterloh, said the company was building on ten years of history with HTC and investing in one team for the long run.
So what's next for Google?
Well, we won't have to wait very long to find out, they're unveiling their next generation of products on October 4th.
