Samsung buys Harman for $ 8 billion in an attempt to enter the automotive electronics market
Samsung Electronics has announced the acquisition of the American Harman International Industries for $ 8 billion to pay in cash. For the Korean giant this deal - an attempt to escape from the slowing growth of the market of smartphones in more promising areas. The Corporation will pay $ 112 for each share of Harman, which represents 28% premium on the share price at the close of the stock exchange on Friday.
For most users Harman is known as a manufacturer of audio (in the Group's portfolio includes brands such as Infinity, JBL and AKG Acoustics), but most of the profits the company received from the sales of electronic components for cars. Last year they brought the company 65% of total revenue, which was $ 7 billion. American manufacturer of the product is installed on about 30 million vehicles around the world.
«Harman perfectly complements Samsung's technology context, products and solutions. Joining forces - a natural extension of our strategy in the automotive industry ", - said the CEO of Samsung Electronics Oh-Hyun Kwon (Oh-Hyun Kwon).
The company also said it plans to use the 8000 Harman employees in order to "create a cloud the user experience of the new generation of consumer and enterprise-segment, as well as end-to-end services for the automobile market through the convergence of design, data and devices" . Buy Harman will give Samsung and more solid foundation to compete with its main high-tech Google and Apple are rivals in the automotive industry. While these companies were more visible in the market and, as a minimum, have a customized version of its operating system for cars.
Samsung is not the only one who is trying to escape from smarftonov market in favor of the car. In late October, the largest producer of chips for mobile devices, Qualcomm announced the purchase of a leader in the production of semiconductors NXP automotive industry. The deal cost the US company at $ 47 billion.