First rumored earlier this month, it appears as if the buyout of HTC’s mobile division is on track to be formalized.  HTC announced today (Source: the Verge) that they have halted trading of their shares in advance of a major announcement.  Most people are projecting that this announcement will be that they are being purchased by Google, to serve as their hardware division going forward.

HTC has been in a position to manufacture phones for Google in the past, both under the Nexus as well as Pixel brands (and it poised to have another device released shortly, the Pixel 2 coming on October 4th) and this merger/buyout makes a lot of sense for both companies.  At least, it makes sense to me, as someone who has been looking for Google to have the kind of equipment, facilities, technical expertise, and supply chain to get into the hardware game for a while now.  We will follow up when the announcement is made official with the press release.