On Friday evening, US chip giant Qualcomm announced the cancelation of its acquisition of Israeli vehicle chip company Autotalks. The acquisition for an estimated $350 million was canceled after a far reaching probe by the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
The British antitrust regulator has expressed creativity and boldness in canceling merger and acquisition deals recently. The largest and most significant of these cancelations being that of Adobe and Figma, which were supposed to merge in a $20 billion dollar deal, but due to pressure from the authorities in Europe and the UK, the merger was cancelled last December.
It is not clear precisely what led to the cancellation of the deal in which Qualcomm was supposed to buy Autotalks, a chip company active in the small niche of direct communication between vehicles. This is an emerging field enabling vehicles to convey data to each other.
The cancelation of the deal is a big disappointment for Autotalks 126 employees. Many of them are veteran employees who have been with the company throughout the 16 years in which it has fought giant companies to promote communications protocols for communications between vehicles. The acquisition by Qualcomm had seemed like a victory over the market.
Autotalks said, "We thank Qualcomm for their intention to acquire Autotalks. We found a fellow believer in the potential of V2X to save thousands of lives every year. We are disappointed that the transaction couldn’t be completed.
"Over the last 15 years, Autotalks has been the V2X market innovator. Recently, we have launched our 3 rd generation chipset, which is the only chip supporting 5G-V2X communication, even concurrently with the legacy DSRC communication. The new chipset paves the future path for V2X by uniquely enabling Automated Braking based on V2X and advanced V2X Day2 applications. As a result of these capabilities, Autotalks has been chosen for 10 Automotive and 1 eBike mass-market platforms.
"Looking forward, our entire team continues to develop our products and support our customers. In parallel, we are exploring alternative paths for the continued success of our company, technology and team."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 23, 2024.
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