HTC on November 22 announced the acquisition of office space located in the Taipei metropolitan area from VIA Technologies at a total price of NT$404 million (US$13.16 million), with the transaction to be finished at the end of 2010.

The office space, with a total floor area of 3,769 square meters (40,565 square feet), is on two floors of a large office building, HTC indicated. In addition, the sale includes 37 car-parking spaces in a basement level of the building, accounting for 10.01% of the total acquisition cost.

The office space is to accommodate HTC's expanded R&D staff during the construction of its headquarters building 230 meters away from the purchased property, HTC pointed out. The building, with 17 stories and five basement levels, will have a total floor area of 85,620 square meters to accommodate 2,200 employees, with completion scheduled for the end of 2011, HTC indicated. 11 floors of the new building will be used to house R&D capacity, HTC noted.

In related news, HTC is expanding its production capacity at a factory in northern Taiwan, and another in Shanghai, eastern China, with combined monthly capacity to be increased to four million smartphones at the end of 2010, HTC noted.