HTC sell back 50% of stake in Beats Audio

HTC‘s joint venture with Dr Dre’s Beats Audio has given their recent range of smartphones a little edge over the competition. The agreement meant that HTC could jack their phones up with the audio-enhancing technology, making the media sound quality on their phones (if you had a good pair of headphones) put the competition to shame.

It would seem that HTC want to take things a bit more slowly with Beats, however, as they’ve announced that they’ve sold off half of their stake in the company, meaning that they now own 25% of the Beats brand.

This still means that HTC are the majority shareholders, but also allows Beats ‘more flexibility for global expansion.’ The two companies will apparently keep working closely together, as HTC will continue to hold a ‘major stake and commercial exclusivity in mobile.’

While Beats Audio is a decent addition to HTC’s handsets, some buyers have been disappointed to find that the phones no longer come bundled with the otherwise pricey Beats Headphones, which are optimised for the technology. Martin Fichter, HTC product executive, justified this by saying that ‘an accessory like the headphone doesn’t factor in when someone is buying a smartphone.’ He added: ‘If they want a Beats headphone, they’ll buy it directly.’

[Source: IT Pro Portal]