Sources say Asus chairman Jonney Shih made headlines at the company’s shareholder meeting on Friday when he did not refute a suggestion that his company might buy HTC.
Asus subsequently clarified that there has been no formal bid put forward, but the rumor was enough for HTC to come out with its own denial.
“We strongly deny the news. We didn’t contact Asusteck and will not consider the acquisition. As an international brand, HTC will continue to design world-class innovative smart devices through its pursuit of brilliance brand promise,” HTC said.
According to other reports, HTC’s business has struggled over the past couple of years, with revenue and profits tumbling despite the Taiwanese company producing some of the best Android devices on the market — including the HTC One in 2013 and HTC One M8 last year.
This year’s M9 model is much like its predecessors and, since they hardly sold like they are as good, many industry watchers don’t see things turning around anytime soon for HTC.