Why should Google buy HTC?

Rumor has it that Google is about to buy HTC's smartphone business. The search giant has the money and the hunger to make it in this market, and the Taiwanese maker has the know-how it needs to come up with the great products that it needs to make a splash -- just look at the Pixel for example. It looks like a match made in heaven.

But, looking at Google's history with Motorola it is hard to understand why the search giant needs to buy another smartphone business. After all, it does not need to own one to make its Pixel smartphones, so why go through all this trouble?

HTC isn't in its best financial shape, so it's likely that Google could buy it for cheap and put the talent that it would get to good use, improving its Pixel line. That would make sense, but Google did not do that with Motorola, so why do it now?

Buying HTC's smartphone business to get access to its patent portfolio would make sense as well, until you consider that Google could simply make a deal with the Taiwanese maker to receive a license for its patents. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free -- or close to it?

Google could buy HTC just to keep its smartphone business alive. Again, that would make sense. HTC produces some really good devices, and it has the potential of making even better smartphones with the right resources, but so do other companies. Should Google buy those too if they're in bad shape?

This deal does not make a whole lot of sense to me right now. Unless Google has some huge plans that require owning HTC (which is possible), I just don't see why it should buy the Taiwanese maker's smartphone business. Maybe I am missing something, and, if you believe that to be the case, please share your input in the comments box below.

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