First they partnered, and now comes the acquisition: multiple media outlets in Israel are reporting that the computing giant Intel is acquiring Mobileye, a leader in autonomous driving technology, for up to $16 billion (or $15-16 billion as one source tells us).
We have a strong signals too from our own sources on this story. “Nothing will be moved to the states [and] Intel may open another R&D center in the country focused on automotive,” one tells us.
Still under discussion are what roles different executives will take post-acquisition: one concerns Mobileye’s CTO, who is being tipped to head up Intel’s automotive division, said David Bedussa, a senior business analyst at CMC Labs in Israel.
One source tells TechCrunch that Mobileye will be gathering staff for an announcement, so the news could be official soon. Another tells us that the acquisition won’t be official until after the market closes later today. (No one, notably, is dismissing the story as just a rumor.)
If confirmed, this would be the biggest-ever acquisition of an Israeli tech company. Other notable exits that have also tapped into the country’s expertise in computer vision and machine learning have included Google buying mapping startup Waze for $1.1 billion and Apple buying 3D sensor specialist PrimeSense for reportedly around $300 million.
Intel has been working officially with Mobileye since last year and earlier this year, with BMW, started to test 40 self-driving cars equipped with the two companies’ technology. Mobileye was also an early partner of Tesla’s for its autonomous technology, although that relationship is ending amid some controversial undertones about safety measures at the carmaker.
Mobileye went public on the Nasdaq in 2014 and currently has a market cap of about $10.5 billion. It’s trading up slightly, 0.83 percent, ahead of the market opening.
Intel had been a leader in processors at the peak of the PC era, although it has competed hard (and often lost) as smartphones overtook the larger devices as consumers’ computers of choice.
Moving deeper into self-driving technology is part of Intel’s bigger strategy to build up its position in emerging areas of computing. Other verticals that Intel has focused on include connected “objects” (IoT) and virtual and augmented reality. It has been following through on this strategy with acquisitions as well as organic growth.
Intel has disclosed several other acquisitions in Israel to fill out that strategy, including buying a personal assistant platform from Ginger Software; Omek Interactive for gesture-based technologies; and Replay Technologies for 3D video.
Intel is not the only company that is investing in and acquiring startups in the area of computer vision to raise its game in the area of autonomous cars.
Just earlier today, Valeo, the automotive parts giant, announced that it had acquired gestigon, a start‑up out of Germany that develops in-car 3D image processing software — used both to communicate to the driver as well as pick up signals from within the car and from the driver to communicate to a self-driving (or partially self-driving) car what to do next.
Terms of the deal, which includes staff as well as IP, were not disclosed. Valeo has been a regular investor in autonomous driving tech, taking a stake, for example, in French autonomous shuttle company Navya and getting a license in California to test self-driving cars. This latest acquisition shows that it remains serious about doing more in this area.
More to come.