SAN FRANCISCO, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Intel Corp. and Mobileye N.V. announced Monday an agreement under which the U.S. computer chipmaker would acquire the Israeli self-driving vehicle technology developer for about 15.3 billion U.S. dollars.
Intel, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, said the deal will bring together Mobileye's leading computer vision expertise with Intel's high performance computing and connectivity expertise to create automated driving solutions from cloud to car.
The goal of acquiring the Jerusalem-based company, as the world's largest chipmaker claimed in a press release, is to position Intel to accelerate innovation for automakers and to capture fast-growing market opportunity, estimated to be up to 70 billion dollars by 2030.
Intel hailed Mobileye as a global leader in the development of computer vision and machine learning, data analysis, localization and mapping for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving. The deal is expected to be the largest exit in Israel's high-tech industry to date.
"This acquisition is a great step forward for our shareholders, the automotive industry and consumers," said Brian Krzanich, Intel's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). "Together, we can accelerate the future of autonomous driving with improved performance in a cloud-to-car solution at a lower cost for automakers."
In extending Intel's strategy to invest in data-intensive market opportunities, Krzanich envisions combining his company's technologies for autonomous driving including plotting the car's path and making real-time driving decisions with Mobileye's abilities to bring automotive-grade computer vision and strong momentum with automakers and suppliers.
"We expect the growth towards autonomous driving to be transformative. It will provide consumers with safer, more flexible, and less costly transportation options, and provide incremental business model opportunities for our automaker customers," said Ziv Aviram, Mobileye Co-Founder, President and CEO. "By pooling together our infrastructure and resources, we can enhance and accelerate our combined know-how in the areas of mapping, virtual driving, simulators, development tool chains, hardware, data centers and high-performance computing platforms."
While Intel intends to fund the acquisition with cash from the balance sheet, a subsidiary of the company will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Mobileye, listed on the New York Stock Market since 2014, for 63.54 dollars per share in cash, representing an equity value of approximately 15.3 billion dollars and an enterprise value of 14.7 billion dollars.
Already approved by the Intel and Mobileye Boards of Directors, the transaction is expected to close within the next nine months. Enditem
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