Reuters Under the deal, HTC will still manufacture its own smartphones.Google and HTC Corp. announced a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement Wednesday night, as the U.S. tech giant moved to bolster its hardware offerings. The agreement had been expected, and HTC’s stock had been halted on the Taiwan exchange pending the announcement. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and HTC already work together to produce the Pixel smartphone. HTC will receive $1.1. billion in cash, and in exchange, a number of HTC employees — many of whom work on Pixel production already — will join Google, the companies said in a joint statement. Separately, Google will receive HTC intellectual property through a non-exclusive licensing agreement. “We’re excited and can’t wait to welcome members of the HTC team who will be joining Google to fuel further innovation and future product development in consumer hardware,” Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of hardware at Google, said in a statement.via