Samsung is buying Harman in an $8 billion bet on connected cars

The Korean company’s biggest ever acquisition places it at the heart of the car-tech market

Image result for samsung acquire car harman

Samsung has announced this morning it’s buying US audio company Harman in an all-cash deal worth $8 billion. The acquisition is Samsung’s largest ever, and places the electronics company in the vanguard of the automotive industry — which Harman supplies with infotainment technology. This space has become of increasing interest to tech companies in recent years as cars become more connected.

Samsung says its expertise in displays, user interfaces, and semiconductor technology would create "significant growth opportunities" for Harman’s auto-parts business. The latter company, which owns a number of brands including Harman Kardon, AKG, and JBL, is expected to double its revenue over the next five years. The firm recently struck large deals with conglomerates including Fiat Chrysler and General Motors, and as of June 30th this year had a backlog of orders worth approximately $24 billion.

THE CARS OF THE FUTURE NEED SCREENS, SOFTWARE, AND PLENTY OF PROCESSORS — SAMSUNG'S BREAD AND BUTTER

"Harman perfectly complements Samsung in terms of technologies, products and solutions, and joining forces is a natural extension of the automotive strategy we have been pursuing for some time," said Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon in a press release. "[This acquisition] immediately establishes a strong foundation for Samsung to grow our automotive platform."

The South Korean company’s push into the automotive world will likely bring it into competition with other tech giants like Google and Apple. Although much of the focus on Silicon Valley’s car ambitions has been on self-driving capabilities, outfitting vehicles with more prosaic connected technology could be more immediately lucrative. Earlier this year it was reported that Apple had scaled back its car initiative, dropping plans to build its own electric vehicle in favor of developing software for existing automakers.

Comments

The Secret Science 02:The 30 Most Disturbing Human Experiments in History

Disturbing human experiments aren’t something the average person thinks too much about. Rather, the progress achieved in the last 150 years of human history is an accomplishment we’re reminded of almost daily. Achievements made in fields like biomedicine and psychology mean that we no longer need to worry about things like deadly diseases or masturbation as a form of insanity. For better or worse, we have developed more effective ways to gather information, treat skin abnormalities, and even kill each other. But what we are not constantly reminded of are the human lives that have been damaged or lost in the name of this progress. The following is a list of the 30 most disturbing human experiments in history. 30. The Tearoom Sex Study Sociologist Laud Humphreys often wondered about the men who commit impersonal sexual acts with one another in public restrooms. He wondered why “tearoom sex” — fellatio in public restrooms — led to the majority of homosexual arrests in ...

The Strange and Stranger Case of Wyndham Lathem

A Northwestern University plague researcher has been charged with a brutal murder. Here’s what we know about him. WIKIMEDIA, TONY WEBSTER O n July 27, The Chicago Tribune reported that there was an arrest warrant issued for Wyndham Lathem , a microbiologist at Northwestern University. The crime Lathem would later be charged with was brutal—26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau, whose body was found in Lathem’s apartment, had been stabbed dozens of times. But Lathem was nowhere to be found. As events unfolded over the following days, it became clear he had fled from Chicago to California with a second suspect, 56-year-old Andrew Warren, a University of Oxford employee from the United Kingdom visiting the states. Along the way, the two men apparently made an anonymous $1,000 donation in Cornell-Duranleau’s name to the Lake Geneva Public Library and another donation for $5,610 to a Chicago health center. Lathem had also sent a video to fa...

Popular painkiller doesn’t have more heart risks than others, study claims

NEW ORLEANS — A long-awaited study on painkillers called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the world, has concluded that the three most commonly used carry a similar risk of cardiovascular complications. Yet critics say the study was too flawed to fairly compare them. Concerns about a type of NSAID called COX-2 inhibitors peaked in 2004 when the drug Vioxx was withdrawn from the market — a decision steeped in scandal because manufacturer Merck & Co had initially hidden data that would reveal the drug’s cardiovascular risks. A second COX-2 inhibitor, Pfizer Inc.’s Celebrex, was allowed to remain on the market with the condition that Pfizer conduct a study to prove that Celebrex was no worse than two older NSAIDs, naproxen and ibuprofen. The study lasted 10 years and enrolled more than 24,000 patients, but faced challenges. Doctors in European Union countries would not participate because they were worried a...

The Research

Search This Blog