HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s leading maker of smartphones running on the Android and Windows Mobile platforms, said yesterday it was acquiring French mobile application developer Abaxia for 11 million euros (US$13 million).
The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this month, it said.
“HTC is committed to creating the best possible mobile experience for customers,” HTC chief executive Peter Chou (周永明) said in a statement. “The addition of Abaxia will deepen and broaden our software development capabilities so that we can innovate at an even faster pace.”
Founded in 2001, Abaxia is a leading France-based international software developer specializing in mobile handset software solutions for network operators and handset manufacturers.
More than 22 million Abaxia applications have been deployed in 36 countries for 60 handset models with tier-1 network operators. It also has 10 global technical contracts with major handset manufacturers, its Web site said.
“HTC and Abaxia have worked closely in the past and our businesses complement each other well. We’re excited to be joining such a significant and emerging mobile brand,” Abaxia CEO Cedric Mangaud said.
Smartphone makers and mobile phone operators have been launching respective app stores, which are viewed as a new cash cow to boost sales.
Apple Inc has an online offering of more than 200,000 applications while Google Inc’s Android has about 38,000.
While HTC doesn’t have its own online app store, Chou has said at recent investor conferences that the company doesn’t rule out the possibility of launching one. He did not elaborate, adding that the timing wasn’t right to launch such a platform yet.
Asustek Inc (華碩電腦) chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) said on May 31 — before the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show — that the company was working with Intel Corp and Microsoft Corp to push out its own version of an app store.
Shares of HTC closed down 2 percent to NT$406 (US$13) yesterday before the acquisition announcement in Taipei.
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