This is interesting, VIA has announced that they've sold their stake in S3 Graphics to HTC. Seems the Taiwan based handset manufacturer wishes to expand their portfolio and include silicon development. It will be interesting to see what this deal brings to future handsets from the company.

Even though S3 Graphics, a graphics chipset manufacturer, doesn't hold as much market share as it once did, they still play an important role in consoles, HTCs and VIA's compact motherboards. Tzu-mu Lin, Senior Vice President and Board Director of VIA, honored the transition:

"The transaction would allow VIA to monetize a portion of its rich IP portfolio, yet retain its graphics capabilities to support the development and sale of its processors and chipsets."

This move could also be fueled by Apple's recent encounter with S3 Graphics where a lawsuit has been filed against Apple for infringing two patents. HTC will now own this collection of patents, which I'm sure they'd be more than happy to use against Apple (especially after Nokia won a settlement).

Source: VIA PR, via: The Unwired