Last year, HTC invested heavily in Beats, the US based primarily high-end headphone manufacturer which is led by a rap artist Dr. Dre. The investment was somewhere in the region of $300 million, but now HTC has sold back the majority of its stake in the company.
The information came to limelight when HTC revelled the information on the Taiwan Stock Exchange filing on Sunday. It would sell around 75 percent of the stake while keeping somewhere in the region of 25 percent to help itself using the beats audio technology on its products. HTC will be selling the mentioned percentage to Beats for US$150 million
The reason for taking such a step remains speculative. HTC might have had higher expectations from beats bundled offering with their phone, and they fell short. It can also be vice-versa where Beats might have asked more control of the company to work on their own vision that they have for the company.
Both the companies will continue to work closely on future offerings. HTC definitely helped popularize the Beats brand for sure, from a small niche level of high-end customers to mid-end following. We will see how this story unfolds in the future.
