Fiat Chrysler flirts with Samsung in hunt for tech partner

FIAT Chrysler Automobiles Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne is looking into a tie-up with Samsung Electronics as the Italian-American company widens its search for a technology partner to gird against being left behind in the race to develop self- driving cars.

Marchionne, who dropped his push for a merger with a fellow carmaker last year, has increasingly turned his intention to technology providers.

In March, he offered to assemble cars for Apple and in May announced a cooperation project with Alphabet Inc.’s Google on driverless vehicles.

Amid discussions with Uber Technologies and Amazon, Samsung is the latest big-name technology company on Fiat’s

We have a very good relationship with Samsung, both as a supplier and as a potential strategic partner. Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Chief Executive Officer

radar.

“We have a very good relationship with Samsung, both as a supplier and as a potential strategic partner,” Marchionne said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Rome.

“I happen to have a good relationship” with Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong because both serve on the board of Exor, Fiat Chrysler’s biggest shareholder.

As previously reported, Samsung is advanced talks about buying some or all of Fiat’s car-parts unit Magneti Marelli, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month. While Marchionne declined to comment on whether Samsung is a suitor, he looks to be positioning the division as a carrot to woo a partner, noting that Magneti Marelli had drawn the interest of several potential buyers.

“Marchionne is trying to pass the message that he is not interested in a straight sale” of the parts business, but instead wants to “use Marelli as a common platform to develop selfdriving cars with Samsung,” Massimo Vecchio, a Milan-based analyst for Mediobanca, said in a note. —Bloomberg