AUTONEWS

Qualcomm in the early stages of acquiring one of the leading autopilot and active driver assistance technologies, Veoneer

Qualcomm will begin the acquisition of Veoneer next week, reflecting the company's ambition to be the first to expand its portfolio of autopilot and active driver assistance technologies, a deal valued at $4.5 billion. The main objective of the American chipmaker is the participation of Veoneer in the Arriver project.

In an official statement, Sweden's Veoneer said that the parties scheduled the closing of the transaction on April 1, in addition, it will be necessary to defend it before the regulatory authorities and, after the merger, Jacob Svanberg, who now heads the lidar. division, will become the head of the company. Qualcomm has agreed to takeover with New York investment firm SWW Partners – out of all the assets of the Swedish chip developer, only part of the business related to the Arriver platform is interested, announced last year.

The Arriver project was created in 2021 as part of a collaboration between Qualcomm and Veoneer to develop complete autopilot and active driver assistance systems based on Veoneer software algorithms and the Snapdragon Ride hardware platform. The American chip maker had to stop the deal to take over the Swedish partner of Canadian Magna, which offered US$ 3.8 billion for its assets. Ride Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) ).

At the end of fiscal 2021, Qualcomm's automotive segment revenue was $975 million, up 51% over the previous year. In the automotive market, the American company was supported by BMW – a total of 1,400 employees worldwide will work on joint projects, including companies in Germany, USA, Sweden, China, Romania, as well as a BMW test center in the Czech Republic.

Image source: veoneer.com