Google has agreed to acquire a part of HTC's extended reality (XR) business for $250 million, expanding its push into virtual and augmented reality The deal involves transferring some of the HTC VIVE engineering staff to Google and granting non-exclusive IP rights.

Taiwan's HTC said on Thursday it will sell part of its unit for extended reality (XR) headsets and glasses to Google for $250 million and transfer some of its employees to the U.S. company. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year,

Google has bought parts of another HTC division, coming years after the company acquired most of HTC's mobile unit.

HTC and Google have struck a major deal in the XR field, with Google agreeing to pay HTC US$250 million. Under the agreement, a portion of HTC's XR R&D team will join Google, and HTC has granted Google a non-exclusive license for its XR-related intellectual property while retaining the right to continue developing and using these technologies.