American multinational corporation and technology company Intel is set to list Mobileye, the Israeli autonomous driving firm that it acquired in 2017 for $15.3 billion, in the US. The announcement which came on Monday says that Intel will list Mobileye through an initial public offering of newly issued Mobileye stock by mid 2022.
Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017 as part of its effort of venturing into new markets. According to Intel, listing Mobileye will help create value for all of its shareholders, adding that it will remain the majority shareholder of the autonomous driving company. Between April and December, Intel has seen its share price fall from $68 to $50 and Mobileye may be one of the ways to make recovery.
Mobileye was founded in 1999, by Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram. The company develops self-driving cars and advanced driver-assistance systems. Operating under the name Mobileye Vision Technology as a subsidiary of Intel, its headquarters and main Research & Development centre is located in Jerusalem. As of 2020, the company had 2,100 employees. The company remains one of the biggest companies to come out of Israel.
Mobileye has quite an impressive portfolio. It has worked with other car companies such as Tesla, BMW, Volvo and General Motors over the years. In July, it came into a partnership with Ford to provide support for Ford’s next generation of advanced driving and safety features which involves Ford using Mobileye’s “EyeQ” camera-based detection technologies.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is always enthusiastic to talk about Mobileye. In a statement, he described the acquisition of Mobileye as a major success for Intel and assured shareholders that the autonomous driving company’s revenue, which was about $1 billion in 2020, would be at least 40 percent higher than the milestone it set in 2020. Also, speaking about the plan to list Mobileye in the US, Pat Gelsinger said that “Amnon and I determined that an IPO provides the best opportunity to build on Mobileye’s track record for innovation and unlock value for shareholders”.
Listing in the US will mark a return for Mobileye which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2014, years after Goldman Sachs invested the sum of $130 million in the company.
Intel saw its stock rise by about 8 percent in aftermarket trading on Monday after announcing its intention to list Mobileye.
