HTC has had a very difficult 2013. They lost their status as a Tier 1 manufacturer as phone part suppliers. This ensures that HTC will always have a competitive disadvantage against Samsung, Apple and others (the list of manufacturers is a closely guarded secret and not publicly available).
Secondly – HTC has lost a chunk of change in the last 12 months. They paid some of their most senior staff a combined $22 million and then some of those same individuals then left HTC. The partnership between HTC and Beats By Dre is also in some complicated state.
Then earlier in the week news broke that Amazon has been in contact with HTC about the building of the much rumored phone from the American based company. Is this the first glimpse into an acquisition maybe? It is becoming clear that the future of HTC is seriously blurry. HTC could become the next Palm who builds phones for others as their own devices are not selling well.
Does HTC get acquired by Lenovo or some other heavy weight? Or are they on the way to irrelevance?
