Google has closed its $1.1bn acquisition of a portion of HTC’s smartphone division, Google’s SVP of hardware Rick Osterloh has confirmed in a blog post.

The acquisition, which was originally announced in September 2017, has now gone through all the necessary regulatory processes and been completed. This means around 2,000 HTC engineers, many of whom worked with Google on the Pixel smartphone, will be become part of Google’s team. They will continue to remain in Taiwan. As a result, Taipei – the capital of Taiwan – will become Google’s largest engineering site in the Asia Pacific region.

The deal also means that Google has received a non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property.

“I’m delighted that we’ve officially closed our deal with HTC, and are welcoming an incredibly talented team to work on even better and more innovative products in the years to come,” said Osterloh.

“As our hardware business enters its third year, we remain committed to building and investing for the long run.”