Google has broadened its smartphone manufacturing operations with an agreement to pay $1.1bn to transfer about 2,000 staff from Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC.

谷歌(Google)拓宽了其智能手机制造业务，签署协议斥资11亿美元接收台湾智能手机制造商宏达电(HTC)约2000名员工。

The companies have also inked a separate non-exclusive licence agreement for HTC’s intellectual property, the terms of which have not been disclosed.

谷歌还为获得宏达电的知识产权另外签署了一项非专属许可协议，条款内容未披露。

“This agreement is a brilliant next step in our longstanding partnership, enabling Google to supercharge their hardware business while ensuring continued innovation within our HTC smartphone and VIVE virtual reality businesses,” said Cher Wang, co-founder and chair of HTC.

宏达电联合创始人和董事长王雪红(Cher Wang)表示：“这份协议是我们长期合作的明智的下一步，将让谷歌得以增强其硬件业务，同时确保本公司HTC智能手机和VIVE虚拟现实业务得以继续创新。”

The purchase highlights the growing importance of hardware to Google as it seeks to entrench its advertising and internet services, particularly in the high end of the smartphone market, while also laying the ground for wider use of its artificial intelligence.

这笔收购突显出硬件对谷歌的重要性日益增强，该集团正寻求夯实其广告和互联网服务，特别是在高端智能手机市场，同时为更广泛地利用其人工智能奠定基础。

Google created its own hardware division last year and launched the Pixel, the first smartphone to feature only the Google brand and to be designed in-house. It hired HTC as the contract manufacturer for the phone, extending a close handset partnership that dates to 2008 to the first device to carry Google’s Android operating system.

去年，谷歌创建了自己的硬件部门并推出Pixel，这是首款只包括谷歌品牌且内部设计的智能手机。谷歌聘用HTC作为这款手机的代工制造商，延续了双方在手机领域的密切合作，这种合作可追溯到2008年首款搭载谷歌安卓(Android)操作系统的手机。

Google said many of the HTC employees who will be involved are “already working with Google to develop Pixel smartphones”.

谷歌表示，此次收购所涉及的许多宏达电员工“已经在与谷歌合作开发Pixel智能手机”。