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HTC drops $40 million investment in cloud gaming specialist OnLive

Less handsets, more services

HTC drops $40 million investment in cloud gaming specialist OnLive
In a one-two punch, the Wall Street Journal reports HTC has initiated two major investments in mobile service companies.

Garnering most attention is the reported $40 million injection of funds in cloud gaming firm OnLive, which is designed to enable games to be streamed over the web to any number of devices – from PC to TV, tablet and mobile.

HTC will buy 5.33 million shares in the privately held OnLive at $7.50 a share.

Up in the air

The move is billed by the paper as an attempt by HTC to strengthen its hand in the mobile gaming business, with company spokesperson Maggie Cheng claiming the move will "strengthen its gaming capabilities and help HTC tap into increasing demand for games on smartphones".

Embedding the OnLive player in its Android hardware would be a major boost to the company. OnLive has previously demoed its services running on iPad, but as yet, there's no commercial deployment other than a spectator mode app

Said investment has been closely following by the acquisition of UK-based Saffron Digital.

The firm specialises in delivering video on demand content to clients, with the likes of Vodafone, T-Mobile, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia partners.

Combined, said investments seem to point to HTC gaining a foothold in delivering media content via the cloud, though the firm itself is remaining tight-lipped about any notion of a co-ordinated strategy being behind the moves.

[source: The Wall Street Journal]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.