HTC has everything Google needs for an in-house Pixel from soup to nuts and they're hurting for money. Its a happy coincidence HTC is collapsing right when Google is getting serious about launching its own branded flagship phones.
I also suspect aggressive moves like this mean that Samsung is probably going to pull the trigger on a full Tizen move and eventually stop producing android phones. The Pixel is aimed right at Galaxy buyers. I'm skeptical this is just a coincidence. The agreement that Nexus was kinda, sorta a developer's phone and will always be hobbled by mid-range camera, battery, and storage seems to have ended with the Pixel line.
I just received a Pixel after my 6P died and its about the closest to iPhone quality I've seen on an Android device. Its clearly a serious attempt by Google to have a proper branded flagship.
That seems to support my hypothesis about the R&D lab.
source: https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/910458246082826240
I also like how you framed something being good (only) for workers like a bad thing :)
It's just that usually M&A is only about money. Employees are just a cost item.
(A chinese-speaking friend of mine with excellent credentials and capabilities in OS quality graphical design was seriously low-balled when applying for a job there.)
According to Glassdoor:
Software Engineer: 20k USD/year
Senior Software Engineer: 24k USD/year
Principal Engineer: 29k USD/year
(https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/HTC-Taipei-Salaries-EI_IE41...)
I get that it's not exactly Silicon Valley, but, wow.
Funnily enough they've now all left, to mainland China!
In short, it's cheap as hellllllll. Rent was like 270/month, food and fun was nothing, life is so so so good in Taiwan. I stress regularly about Chinese bluster regarding Taiwan, it is an incredible country I really believe is chock full of opportunity.
My journey to become a software engineer started there. Now that I've snuck my way into frontend, it's my goal as I get more experienced and senior to eventually move back there and start remote contracting or start my own business there. I'm still convinced I could get the best engineers in Taiwan to work for me by just paying them 50k flat out (they make like 20-30/year and are expected to work 9am-9pm, sometimes weekends, arbitrarily) and giving them reasonable (to an American) benefits.
[1](http://ablate.blogspot.tw/2014/05/what-does-it-cost-to-live-...)
Found this comment which I am going to blindly trust. ;) So, for reference, the HTC salaries were in the range of 50-70k NTD/month.
"90% of people working in Taipei make from 22-68k a month. College grads often make 22k a month out of College and those with a Master Degree start at 30,000NT a month. They spend about 5 years to make 40k a month. An Engineer might make 50k-75k a month. The only reason the Average is skewed to 70k is because Taipei has millionaires and billionaires that skew these numbers. It in NO WAY represents what the everyday working Taiwanese or Foreigner generally makes.
TAIPEI WAGES
Min Wage 18,000
Factory Work 18,000-20,000
Typical Office Worker 22,000-40,000
Nurse 30,000-40,000
Taxi Driver 60,000-70,000
Flight Attendant 50,000-60,000?
Foreign English Teacher 55,000-70,000
Engineer 50,000-70,000
Doctor 150,000-400,000
Foreigner Specialist with Foreign Income---150,000-300,000"
Anyway this is just hearsay of course, before anybody would believe any of this I would say let's get the census in or something.
Or is Taipei that expensive?
edit: saw the comment bellow
The $330M price is so low none of the HTC investors are going to make any money on it. HTC's mobile phone business has been unprofitable for years and Google won't make any money on it either.
Who knows maybe Google is planning on using the HTC business unit as a sort of an R&D lab for Android hardware, with no real plan on making it a traditionally profitable business.