HTC could be looking to spin off its virtual reality business in what would be a reversal of the company's earlier stance on the matter.
Back in January, HTC co-founder and CEO Cher Wang made comments that hinted that the company would be spinning off its VR unit into a separate company. It was speculated that Wang and HTC would jointly own the new business, which would be handling the Vive VR headset.
However, the rumors were almost immediately denied by HTC, which said that it will be continuing with the development of its VR business itself to be able to further maximize the unit's value to the company's shareholders.
It would seem that the rumors will once again be firing up though, as HTC could possibly be changing its mind on whether to spin out its VR business or not.
The reversal on the HTC's stance on a possible spinoff was inferred from the statements made by Chia-lin Chang, the company's president of global sales, at the recently concluded annual shareholders' meeting of the company. In the meeting, the executive said that the establishment of an independent VR subsidiary would help HTC in building alliances with potential strategic partners, along with the possibility to solicit equity investments from these partners.
Such alliances would allow the company to keep increasing its competitiveness in the fledgling yet very much lucrative VR industry, with Wang adding that the VR business is very important for the future of HTC with its ability to generate profits.
One such partnership that HTC has already entered is the one with Valve, which will allow the company to reach its profit targets both in the medium-term and in the long-term. HTC is also expecting to receive a share of profits as developers create VR apps for various industries, including retail, entertainment, healthcare and education.
If HTC is indeed thinking about spinning out its VR business, details on such a move were not revealed during the shareholders' meeting.
The HTC Vive headset is primed to take on leadership status in the VR industry, partly due to the missteps that its main rival, Facebook's Oculus Rift, has suffered at the onset. One such mistake is the Rift's earlier opposition in having games made for the device to be played on other headsets such as the HTC Vive. Oculus has since gone back on its stance, and has recently released an update to allow gamers to play Rift games on HTC's VR headset.
