HTC buys cloud firm Dashwire

Taiwanese handset developer HTC has made another acquisition to beef up its patent portfolio as technology companies around the globe prepare to fend off legal disputes. HTC is reported to have spent $18.5m on the purchase of Dashwire, a mobile cloud platform developer.

Dashwire, based in Seattle and backed by Trilogy Equity Partners and Best Buy Capital, was founded in 2006 to develop cloud-based services allowing users to access their mobile content across multiple screens. HTC will integrate Dashwire’s cloud sync and device set up products into the HTCSense.com cloud services it launched last year.

“Cloud services are key to delivering the promise of connected services to our customers,” said Fred Liu, president of engineering and operations at HTC.”People want access to all of their important content wherever they are on any device. The addition of Dashwire’s cutting-edge sync services and deep mobile cloud experience strengthens our ability to deliver these services in a more powerful way.”

In July, HTC snapped up long term partner S3 Graphics from Taiwanese chip maker Via Technologies for $300m, giving the handset firm 235 patents, mostly related to graphics technology, to bolster its portfolio.

HTC is currently at legal loggerheads with Apple, as the big industry dust up over who’s copying who drags on.