Intel’s US$15 billion purchase of Mobileye shakes up driverless car sector
JERUSALEM/DETROIT: Intel Corp agreed to buy Israeli autonomous vehicle technology firm Mobileye for US$15.3 billion in a deal that could thrust the US chipmaker into direct competition with rivals Nvidia Corp and Qualcomm Inc to develop driverless systems for global automakers.
The pricey acquisition of Mobileye could propel the world’s largest computer chipmaker into the front ranks of automotive suppliers at a time when Intel has been reaching for market beyond its core computer semiconductor business.
It also promises to escalate the arms race among the world’s carmakers and suppliers to acquire autonomous vehicle technology, and could fuel already-overheated valuations of self-driving startups.
The stakes are enormous. Last year, Goldman Sachs projected the market for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles would grow from about US$3 billion in 2015 to US$96 billion in 2025 and US$290 billion in 2035.
Skeptics have questioned whether auto companies and suppliers will be able to deploy fully selfdriving cars safely in the next four years, as several have promised.
Investment analysts on Monday raised concerns about the potential synergies between Intel and Mobileye, as well as the acquisition’s price.
Intel has not been a significant player in the sector, although it has invested in at least half a dozen start-up companies developing different components for self-driving systems, from robotics to sensors.
Mobileye brings a broad portfo- lio that includes cameras, sensor chips, in-car networking, roadway mapping, machine learning, cloud software and data fusion and management.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for them to get into a market that has significant growth opportunities,” said Betsy Van Hees, an analyst at Loop Capital Markets.
“Mobileye’s technology is very critical... The price seems fair,” she added.
Still, the industry newsletter Semiconductor Advisors on Monday wrote that Intel’s acquisition of Mobileye indicates a strategic move “very far outside its core business franchise.”
The price is about 21 times expected 2017 revenue, making it more than six times more expensive than the semiconductor industry’s three-year deal average, said B. Riley analyst Craig Ellis.
He said the “very expensive transaction” improved Intel’s position in the automated driver assistance market, but left Nvidia the leader on the highest end.
Intel is paying a premium of 60 times Mobileye’s earnings, about four times the premium that Qualcomm is paying to acquire the Netherlands’ NXP.
The US$ 63.54- per- share cash deal represents a premium of about 33 per cent to Mobileye’s closing price of US$47 on Friday, but below its all-time high closing price of US$64.14 in August 2015. — Reuters