HTC Shares Plummet As Analysts Declare ‘Brand Has No Value’

In a fast-moving market like mobile, it's easy to overlook certain trends until they're well-established. Take HTC, for example. A few years ago, the company was a de facto choice for Android phones. Many of my friends had owned the company's devices and were pleased with them overall. But now? I'm not sure I know a single person with an HTC phone, despite the fact that the company has kept on trucking.

Well, with the company's latest financial outlook, it's clear that there's a good reason why we haven't been hearing too much good about it lately. According to some investors, the company is basically worthless, with its share prices and earnings decreasing with each quarter.

“HTC’s cash is the only asset of value to shareholders,” said Calvin Huangof the Tapei-based Sinopac Financial Holdings Co. in an interview with Bloomberg. “Most of the other assets shouldn’t be considered in their valuation because there’s more write-offs to come and the brand has no value.”

The forecast for this year's third quarter is going to be as much as 48% lower than original estimates, and follows a 35% cut to projected revenue for the second quarter. As it seems right now, HTC's financials are in a free-fall, so it's clear that some immediate changes are needed.

In this particular case, those changes are with regards to HTC's product offerings. The company is planning to focus much more on the high-end, where profit margins are higher, and we should begin to see reductions of lower-end lines by the first quarter of 2016. Nonetheless, it's being projected that we won't see a chance of profit for HTC until 2017, so this is a rough tide the company will need to ride out.