Design Sojourn

I received a few blips of news in my inbox telling me that HTC has purchased 100% of One & Company Design Inc for $USD 4.82 Million in Cash. One & Company Design was involved in the Touch Diamond series of HTC Smart Phones in 2006.

I am always excited to hear of such mergers and acquisitions, of which I think the last big one was the purchase of a majority stake in Frog Design by Flextronics in 2004 for USD $30 Million. I wonder how this partnership is doing?

I think this is a very positive sign for our Industrial Design industry. It shows that companies are starting to realize the value and impact of design towards their business. As a result companies may decide acquire the design ability or skills by purchasing it rather than starting one fresh internally. Another way to look at it is companies, such as HTC, are protecting their investment in design, especially if One & Company had quite a major role to play in creating the very successful HTC Touch Mobile Phone. Logically HTC would not want them to share their skills and insights with anyone else.

Finally, I think this is great news for entrepreneurial designers looking to start their our consultancies or studios as such acquisitions means that they have a potential pot of gold at the end of the tunnel to pay off for all their years of hard work building a company. Not to mention the side effect of extra design jobs for all of us!

Related Posts You Might Find Interesting: