HTC shares crash, "brand, factories and buildings were worthless"
Market capitalization of Android smartphone maker HTC has fallen to $1.5 billion on Monday, a ten-year low --and below the $1.5 billion it had in cash at the end of June. This means that investors are effectively saying HTC's "brand, factories and buildings were worthless", reports Bloomberg.
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So far this year HTC's stocks have fallen 60 percent, and there are no indications of a recovery in sight.
"HTC's cash is the only asset of value to shareholders," said Calvin Huang of Sinopac Financial Holdings wrote in a research note quoted by Bloomberg. "Most of the other assets shouldn't be considered in their valuation because there's more write-offs to come and the brand has no value."
Back in 2011 HTC was regarded as the top smartphone brand in the US, holding a 24 percent, ahead of both Apple, Samsung, and BlackBerry. However, by 2013 fortunes had changed and the company had lost most of its market share to Apple and Samsung.
Back in July of this year HTC put plans for its Grip fitness tracker on hold as a result of "extensive wear testing and user feedback" and that it "decided to align Grip with the entire product portfolio for health and fitness launching later this year."
"We think these efforts are not enough to turn HTC around in the next two years," Birdy Lu, an analyst with Deutsche Bank AG, wrote in an August report. "HTC has little chance to compete with iPhone and Samsung given limited resources, and might continue to lose shares to Chinese brands in mid/low-end segment."
See also:
Best Android smartphones for work and play (Aug 2015 edition)