谷歌斥資11億美元“收購”宏達電員工

Google has broadened its smartphone manufacturing operations with an agreement to pay $1.1bn to transfer about 2,000 staff from Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC.

谷歌(Google)拓寬了其智能手機製造業務，簽署協議斥資11億美元接收臺灣智能手機制造商宏達電(HTC)約2000名員工。

The companies have also inked a separate non-exclusive licence agreement for HTC’s intellectual property, the terms of which have not been disclosed.

谷歌還爲獲得宏達電的知識產權另外簽署了一項非專屬許可協議，條款內容未披露。

“This agreement is a brilliant next step in our longstanding partnership, enabling Google to supercharge their hardware business while ensuring continued innovation within our HTC smartphone and VIVE virtual reality businesses,” said Cher Wang, co-founder and chair of HTC.

宏達電聯合創始人和董事長王雪紅(Cher Wang)表示：“這份協議是我們長期合作的明智的下一步，將讓谷歌得以增強其硬件業務，同時確保本公司HTC智能手機和VIVE虛擬現實業務得以繼續創新。”

The purchase highlights the growing importance of hardware to Google as it seeks to entrench its advertising and internet services, particularly in the high end of the smartphone market, while also laying the ground for wider use of its artificial intelligence.

這筆收購突顯出硬件對谷歌的重要性日益增強，該集團正尋求夯實其廣告和互聯網服務，特別是在高端智能手機市場，同時爲更廣泛地利用其人工智能奠定基礎。

Google created its own hardware division last year and launched the Pixel, the first smartphone to feature only the Google brand and to be designed in-house. It hired HTC as the contract manufacturer for the phone, extending a close handset partnership that dates to 2008 to the first device to carry Google’s Android operating system.

去年，谷歌創建了自己的硬件部門並推出Pixel，這是首款只包括谷歌品牌且內部設計的智能手機。谷歌聘用HTC作爲這款手機的代工製造商，延續了雙方在手機領域的密切合作，這種合作可追溯到2008年首款搭載谷歌安卓(Android)操作系統的手機。

Google said many of the HTC employees who will be involved are “already working with Google to develop Pixel smartphones”.

谷歌表示，此次收購所涉及的許多宏達電員工“已經在與谷歌合作開發Pixel智能手機”。