SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung on Monday announced an agreement valued at 8,000 million dollars to buy Harman International Industries, a business that marks a major advance in the field of automotive technology and the largest acquisition in the foreign of a south Korean company.
The purchase of the manufacturer of connection systems and automotive audio, which has its headquarters in Stamford in Connecticut, is part of Samsung’s efforts to find new areas of growth, at a time when its main business of smart phones, marked by the disastrous retreat of the Galaxy Note 7 is slowing down.
“Samsung is using its huge amount of cash to get ahead of their rivals in the market of automotive technology, but it remains to be seen whether it will be able to become a company able to compete with Bosch and Continental,” said Park Jung-hoon, fund manager for HDC Asset Management.
Samsung came to an agreement to acquire Harman for $ 112 per share in cash, a premium of 28 per cent over the price at which it closed on Friday, the roles of the u.s. firm.
The products of Harman, which provide services of information and entertainment, telematics, and security services, used in over 30 million vehicles manufactured by automakers such as BMW, Toyota Motor Corp and Volkswagen, according to its website.
Samsung said that Harman, which has about 30,000 employees, will operate as an independent unit of Samsung and will continue to be led by its chief executive officer, Dinesh Paliwal.
“When it is closed, the operation shall immediately give Samsung a significant presence in the large market and rapid growth of technologies of connection, particularly in the automotive electronics, which has been a strategic priority for Samsung,” said the firm in a statement.
The acquisition of Harman is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in mid-2017.
(Reporting Hyunjoo Jin. Edited in Spanish by Carlos Aliaga/Rodrigo Charme)
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