HispanicBusiness

HTC Corp, the world's fourth-largest smartphone maker, said Monday that it would book a 40-million-US-dollar loss on an investment in the US-based online gaming platform Onlive Inc.

HTC invested in Onlive in February 2011 during a period when it spent more than 700 million US dollars in investments and acquisitions to shore up the technology portfolio for its products. It paid 40 million US dollars for its Onlive stake.

The Taiwan-based company said Onlive failed to raise enough cash to cover operations but did not elaborate on whether it still had any stake in Onlive after the company was restructured Friday.

Onlive, a cloud gaming platform that offers its members a chance to play more than 200 video games online, was acquired by a newly formed company but declined to disclose who its new investors are. It laid off nearly half of its employees Friday, according to media reports from interviews with former employees.

The loss is the second faltering investment for HTC within a month. The company sold half its 50.1-per-cent stake in headphone maker Beats Electronics LLC in July for a 4.8-million-US-dollar loss.

HTC has seen a 24.1-per-cent decline in shipments in the second quarter of 2012 from the same period a year ago, according to market research provider IDC. Its stock price has tumbled 77 per cent since it peaked in April 2011.