HTC just experienced their first quarterly loss in the company’s history. Speaking about history, it’s pretty much proven that once you start your descent into irrelevance, the odds of your turning things around lie somewhere between slim and none. Just look at Nokia, which was purchased by Microsoft. Motorola, which was purchased by Google. And now BlackBerry, who will eventually be chopped up and sold into pieces. So what’s in HTC’s future? According to the Korean publication eToday, executives from HTC and Lenovo have been meeting in secret since late August.

They say the plan is for Lenovo to take over HTC’s brand, in much the same way that Lenovo took over the ThinkPad brand when they bought it from IBM. Terms of the deal haven’t been mentioned, likely because those numbers are always shifting, but the deal, assuming it’s legit, is expected to be announced and go through at some point during the first half of next year.

Is this a bad thing? Not in the slightest bit. Lenovo is a very strong smartphone maker, in China that is. They’re on the up and up, and in order to grow, it would help them immensely to buy themselves a brand that people trust. HTC’s devices are great, no one really questions that, but the way the company has run itself into the ground shows that poor management and even poorer marketing can ruin you, despite awesome products.

Update: Found the original source of the rumor, Taiwan’s Apple Daily.