Huawei might offload its Honor brand to the Chinese government

While Huawei makes a bunch of phones ranging from cheap to expensive, the company also owns a subsidiary brand called Honor that some of you might be familiar with, but it seems that Huawei might not be owning Honor for much longer. An exclusive report from Reuters has revealed that Huawei could be looking to sell off its Honor brand for as much as $15.2 billion.

So who will own Honor? According to the report, it could end up being owned by a consortium of companies led by handset distributor Digital China, as well as the local Shenzhen government.

As to why Huawei is planning to sell off Honor, the report claims that due to the US restrictions placed on Huawei, the company is being forced to change its strategy to focus more on high-end devices and also corporate-oriented business, which means that they might not have the time or resources to allocate to its Honor brand anymore.

Some analysts have expressed their surprise at the rumored sale, like Nicole Peng, vice-president of mobility at market research firm Canalys, who believes that Honor’s business is actually rather complementary to Huawei. It is unclear what will become of the brand moving forwards, but it is possible that divesting the Honor brand could allow it to escape US sanctions, although whether or not these sanctions could be updated to include Honor remains to be seen.

Source: Reuters