Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
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According to Bloomberg, Amazon has reached an agreement with lidar manufacturer Velodyne, the former of which will acquire 39 million shares of the latter, which is about to take a nearly 16% stake.
Under the agreement, NV Investment Holdings,Amazon.com a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, can exercise warrants at a price of $4.18 (about 26.57 yuan) per share on or before February 4, 2030.
It is reported that the certified shares will gradually be vested according to the "discretionary payment" of up to $200 million (about 1.27 billion yuan) paid by Amazon to Velodyne. Under the terms of the deal, Amazon could appoint a board observer when it holds more than 12.3 million shares.
After Amazon buys a stake in the head sensor maker, it will also add strength to its autonomous driving business.
First, Amazon's stock price doubled after it took a stake, ford withdrew last year
It is reported that as soon as the news of Amazon's equity certification of Velodyne came out, Velodyne's stock price more than doubled in the final trading, closing at $3.77 (about 23.96 yuan).
Velodyne lidar on self-driving cars
Interestingly, several recent companies that have partnered with Amazon have achieved better stock price performance.
In March last year, Amazon bought a stake in air cargo operator Air Transport Services Group for $131 million, and the company's stock price rose nearly 5 percent.
Not long ago, Amazon announced that Rivian, the electric vehicle manufacturer it invested in in 2019, also achieved net revenue growth of $11.8 billion (about 75 billion yuan) at the end of last year. And Rivian went public in an IPO in November last year.
Velodyne reached an agreement two years ago with graf industrial Corp, a U.S.-listed company, and merged into the company to achieve a backdoor listing.
As planned at the time, after the completion of the transaction, Velodyne became a wholly owned subsidiary of Graf Industrial Corp, and Graf Industrial Corp's stock code GRA would be renamed VLDR and continue to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
But months after that deal, early last year, its investor, Ford Motor Company, said it had sold all of its stake in Velodyne.
Second, executive infighting, last year's stock price plunged 85%
After Ford's exit, Velodyne also experienced an internal stalemate.
At the end of July last year, Velodyne's former CEO, Anand Gopalan, left, and anand Gopalan publicly asked Velodyne's board chairman, Michael Dee, and a director, Hamid Zarringhalam, to resign. He believes that "both of these people have undermined shareholder confidence and caused the company to lose significant value." ”
▲Velodyne前CEO Anand Gopalan
That's largely because Dee and the board are considering transferring Velodyne's Alpha Prime lidar manufacturing technology and related trade secrets to Nikon — the aforementioned director, Hamid Zarringhalam, who is a Nikon executive.
Another company executive, Hall, also said Velodyne desperately needed directors with public company and high-growth technology experience to help reverse the anti-shareholder culture that currently prevails on boards.
After these changes, Velodyne's stock price once plunged nearly 85% in the past year.
Conclusion: Amazon borrowed Velodyne to grow its autonomous driving business
The development of Velodyne, the first share of LiDAR, after the listing, was not smooth, and it also experienced dark moments such as high-level infighting, business decline, and stock price plunge.
But Velodyne is still the head of the global lidar industry, and Amazon's heavy purchase of 16% of Velodyne's shares is also a full recognition of its strength.
After all, lidar is a key technology in the field of autonomous driving, and its use of lasers to construct 3D images of the surrounding landscape is crucial for how vehicles perceive their environment, predict the behavior of pedestrians and other vehicles, and plan how to navigate safely.
Therefore, after a strong stake in LiDAR Company Velodyne, Amazon also wants to borrow its East Wind to help its autonomous driving business.