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Intel announces purchase of Israel’s driverless technology firm Mobileye for 15.3 billion dollars

The American computer company Intel announced it would purchase Israel’s driverless technology firm Mobileye for 15.3 billion dollars, positioning itself for a dominant role in the autonomous-driving sector. The 63.54 dollars per share cash-deal, is the biggest technology takeover in Israel’s history and the largest purchase of a company solely focused on the self- driving sector. Intel will integrate its automated driving group with Mobileye’s operations, with the combined entity being run by Mobileye Chairman Amnon Shashua from Israel. 

“That is a vote of confidence for the Israeli tech industry, for a bit less than $15 billion, that is by far the biggest deal for the Israeli Tech industry. Just a few years ago when Google bought Waze for a bit more than a billion dollars, that was a huge news here in Israel, but now for $15 billion? That is very big news and very big success for Israel,” said Israeli Fischer, Global Economy Correspondent – Marker Daily.

Mobileye accounts for 70 percent of the global market for driver-assistance and anti-collision systems. It employs 660 people and had adjusted net income of 173.3 $ million last year. Intel said it expected the transaction to close within the next nine months and to immediately boost its non-GAAP earnings per share and free cash flow.