HTC makes profit thanks to deal with Google, but turnover plummets

HTC made a profit in the past quarter for the first time in almost three years. However, turnover fell sharply compared to a year earlier. The black numbers are due to the previously made deal with Google.

In the first quarter of this year, HTC achieved sales of products of 8.8 billion Taiwan dollars, or about 248 million euros. That is 55.4 percent less than in the comparable quarter last year. HTC’s turnover has been declining sharply for years and that is probably due to the decline in smartphone sales of the Taiwanese brand. HTC does not disclose figures about this.

Despite the declining turnover, HTC wrote black figures in the past quarter. The profit amounted to 21.1 billion Taiwan dollars, converted about 595 million euros. The profit is much higher than the turnover because HTC was able to add 31.6 billion Taiwan dollars in non-operating income. That has to do with the deal between Google and HTC, which was completed at the beginning of this year.

Google has taken over a large part of the HTC staff in that deal. It would concern about two thousand employees of the smartphone division. HTC wants to focus less on phones and more on virtual reality, but the company isn’t saying goodbye to the smartphone market just yet. HTC will probably introduce the successor to the U11 on May 23.

Without counting the deal, the company made a loss. The operating loss then amounts to 5.2 billion Taiwan dollars in the quarter, converted about 147 million euros.