Beats to Break Partnership with HTC

Way back in 2011, the smartphone company, HTC, announced that they would be teaming up with the new and fresh Beats Electronics Company, promising to add Beats Audio Technology into all HTC devices. HTC put out an estimated value of $300 million to acquire Beats as an HTC company which included a new line of Beats-enhanced HTC devices; the first device available with the Beats Technology was the HTC Rezound.

Two years can have a large effect as new reports say that Beats Electronics are looking to completely end the partnership with HTC and return to being a single company. In July of 2012 Beats bought back half of its own shares from HTC giving itself a 75% ownership rather than a 50/50 split with HTC.

These reports come from The Wall Street Journal and state that Beats is looking at new investors to expand their technology beyond headphones to home theaters, in-car tech, and a streaming service. A streaming music service is indeed an odd approach for a company that manufactures headphones, but back in January of this year Beats bought their own music service, MOG, and stated that they have plans to re-brand the service.

With Beats struggling to find a new investor, HTC is fighting heavy competition against Apple and Samsung. HTC launched their new HTC One smartphone a few months ago on all major carriers, but lacked to enter the Verizon market up until this month, missing out on a large number of customers. Reviews of HTC’s device are positive, but with the marketing power of both Apple and Samsung the phone quickly got pushed aside and has yet to make any significant dent within the cellular market, which mind you is dominated by Samsung Galaxy devices and iPhones.

HTC has done some outstanding things for their market such as the first ever Android cell phone but it seems as if they have hit a bump in the road. With HTC’s stock taking a huge dive ever since 2011 people wonder what the company has next in store.