Shares in HTC, the beleaguered Taiwanese smartphone maker, have been suspended amid rumours Google is preparing to announce an acquisition.

Taiwan's stock exchange announced that shares would not be trading on Thursday morning "pending the release of material information".

HTC manufactures the Google Pixel smartphone and Google or its parent company Alphabet is seen as the likely buyer of the Taiwanes group or a division of it. A deal would be a return to direct ownership of a phone company for Google, bringing back memories of its disastrous Motorola Mobility acquisition in 2011.

HTC would be likely to cost far less than the $12.5bn (£9bn) Google paid for Motorola. Shares have fallen 95pc since 2011, when HTC was at the peak of its powers as one of the world's premier smartphone makers and its market capitalisation on Wednesday was under 57bn Taiwanese dollars ($1.9bn).