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Intel Confirms $15 Billion Mobileye Deal (axios.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the prepping-for-next-big-race dept.

Intel is paying $15.3 billion to acquire Israeli computer vision company Mobileye in an effort to boost the chipmaker's position in the autonomous car market. From a report on Axios: Intel is tapping its foreign cash, paying $63.54 per share in cash for the company and said it should be immediately a boost to its per-share earnings; it is expected to close late this year. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich's letter to employees, as well as a missive from Mobileye insist "that instead of Mobileye being integrated into Intel, Intel's Automated Driving Group will be integrated into Mobileye."

13 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Another McAfee Purchase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Intel has a very poor record as a software company, and without integrating Mobileye, they understand that at least. Don't get me wrong, Intel has a lot of great software engineers who contribute to open source projects, just intel doesn't sell any software I want to buy. As for them pushing chips, if it's not the right chip it will fail just like their tablet and netbook push

  2. Buy AMD by ghoul · · Score: 1

    AMD is only 14 Billion

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    **Life is too short to be serious**
    1. Re:Buy AMD by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      But Intel cannot buy AMD, something about the FTC and monopolies or something I hear.

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      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    2. Re:Buy AMD by spire3661 · · Score: 2

      Intel PURPOSEFULLY keeps AMD around. Intel could crush AMD at any moment they choose. They are not partners, they are not rivals, they are not peers. AMD exists SOLELY to stave off monopoly concerns and was established as a second source of x86 to satisfy of DoD 'two sources' criteria. Intel spends more on R&D alone per year than AMDs entire market cap.

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      Good-bye
    3. Re:Buy AMD by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      all true, and hinted at in my post.

      Intel could crush AMD at any moment they choose. ... Intel spends more on R&D alone per year than AMDs entire market cap.

      And yet AMD blew Intel's doors off with Opteron previously, and just this month forced a large cut in Intel's prices across the board. I'd say that Intel is not spending effectively on R&D, or not getting their money's worth out of it.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  3. Drove a car with mobileye camera unit by caseih · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Recently I drove a rental car that was equipped with a mobileye vision unit below the rearview mirror and I was quite impressed with it. It was pretty accurate at seeing speed limit signs, even in construction zones. It also was very good at measuring following distances and alerted us when we were coming up on a car (or other obstacle) too fast. Saved us a couple of times in stop and go traffic. Shoulder checked to see if it was safe to change lanes and suddenly got a beep when someone hit the brakes in front of us. Also was fairly good at lane departure warnings.

    So I can see how their technology as a driver assistance device is quite useful. Technology is coming along quite nicely. The only problem is that car makers are already putting all of this in their new cars, so the market for these units is small. At the same time, I don't see a lot of money to be made in autonomous cars just yet. Quite a gamble for Intel.

    It's very interesting when you consider that Mobileye just sold for $15 billion and they make very little in physical terms, and sell even less. Yet Opel, which does actually make and sell real physical things, sold for $2 billion. Kind of throws cold water on Trump's idea that we can make America great/white again through returning to manufacturing. From an investor's point of view, the money is just not in manufacturing.

    1. Re:Drove a car with mobileye camera unit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, most car manufacturers are putting this type of stuff in their new cars...and generally, they're buying it from MobileEye. Ford, GM, et al aren't developing the silicon, algorithms, etc in-house. It's all 3rd party supplied, just like it really should be. This type of stuff isn't their expertise.

      This is a big move by Intel. MobileEye is probably the most advanced system out there right now.

    2. Re:Drove a car with mobileye camera unit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure Tesla is the one who decided to do the work in house and not buy from Mobileye.
      My Tesla Model S has Mobileye technology in it and it is brilliant. It may be a long way from fully autonomous driving but is sure is relaxing on long highway trips.

  4. Re:Farcical 15bn USD for 15 self-appointed "genius by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

    #bdsfail /giggles

  5. Skeptics will fail by cellocgw · · Score: 1

    If you /. complainers don't think both autonomous and HAD (highly-assisted driving) is going to be a gigantic market,you're not paying any attention.
    I am paying attention, mostly 'cause I work for one of the companies making radar & camera products for these functions, and partly 'cause I like the neat things my Tesla can do :-) .
    The fact is that there's going to be zillions of dollars' worth of contracts from car mfrs for sensors, processing algorithms, and control algorithms. Intel wants in on that.

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    https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
  6. Cost of not innovating? by Gordo_1 · · Score: 2

    Let's say the average full-time Engineer costs $150k/year (all in, including health care and benefits). For $15B, Intel could have employed 10,000 such Engineers for a whole decade for the amount of money they spent on this questionable acquisition. Now you know what the cost of not spending on R&D is.

    1. Re:Cost of not innovating? by xevioso · · Score: 1

      Sure, but I don't think Intel know or foresaw 10 years ago that this sort of technology would show the promise it shows today. Also, they may have discovered this, say, 8 years ago, rather than 10, by which time other companies would have had, say, a 2-year head start.

      Perhaps someone then made the business decision to "see how it pans out" and then decided to look into purchasing a company in the future.

    2. Re:Cost of not innovating? by Gordo_1 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but the math doesn't support your view that Intel was better off spending $15B on this acquisition at this late stage versus actually having an innovation program internally or purchasing a whole slew of early bets (most of which don't pay off.)

      MobileEye today only has about 500 employees, of which maybe half are Engineers. It's likely that only a small team of ~30-50 was involved in building out the majority of the technology that makes up the core of its IP. With $15B, Intel could have funded 200 fifty person teams, each for a full decade. Given that the investment would have been done over time and various investing and culling strategies would have been employed, even with a very small success rate, I contend that Intel could have researched their way to early leadership in the autonomous vehicle market and maybe a dozen others with the same level of investment they poured into MobilEye.