First they partnered, and now comes the acquisition: the computing giant Intel has confirmed that it is acquiring Mobileye, a leader in autonomous driving..
First they partnered, and now comes the acquisition: the computing giant Intel has confirmed that it is acquiring Mobileye , a leader in autonomous driving technology, for $15.3 billion — the biggest-ever acquisition of an Israeli tech company.
Specifically, “Under the terms of the agreement, a subsidiary of Intel will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Mobileye for $63.54 per share in cash, representing a fully-diluted equity value of approximately $15.3 billion and an enterprise value of $14.7 billion,” the company noted in a statement.
“The combination is expected to accelerate innovation for the automotive industry and position Intel as a leading technology provider in the fast-growing market for highly and fully autonomous vehicles,” the company continued. “Intel estimates the vehicle systems, data and services market opportunity to be up to $70 billion by 2030. The transaction extends Intel’s strategy to invest in data-intensive market opportunities that build on the company’s strengths in computing and connectivity from the cloud, through the network, to the device.”
Still under discussion are what roles different executives will take post-acquisition: one concerns Mobileye’s CTO, who is being tipped to head up Intel’s automotive division, said David Bedussa , a senior business analyst focusing on automotive at CMC Labs in Israel.
“Nothing will be moved to the U. S. [and] Intel may open another R&D center in the country focused on automotive,” he said.
One source tells TechCrunch that Mobileye will be gathering staff for an announcement, so the news could be official soon.
Other notable exits that have also tapped into the country’s expertise in computer vision and machine learning have included Google buying mapping startup Waze for $1.1 billion and Apple buying 3D sensor specialist PrimeSense for reportedly around $300 million.
The negotiations about what stays where for Mobileye and Intel are reminiscent of one of the other big M&A deals in Israel’s tech history, concerning Waze. Originally, Waze was being courted by Facebook , although there were disagreements over where Waze’s staff would be centered: engineering wanted to stay in Israel while Facebook was keen to get the to Facebook’s HQ in Menlo Park. Ultimately that delay led to Google swooping in, agreeing to Waze’s terms, and closing the deal.
Intel has been working officially with Mobileye since last year and earlier this year , with BMW, started to test 40 self-driving cars equipped with the two companies’ technology. Mobileye was also an early partner of Tesla’s for its autonomous technology, although that relationship is ending amid some controversial undertones about safety measures at the carmaker.
Mobileye went public on the Nasdaq in 2014 and currently has a market cap of about $10.5 billion. It’s trading up now more than 33 percent ahead of the market opening on the news. As a point of context, the company had moved only 0.83% on Friday’s trades.
Intel had been a leader in processors at the peak of the PC era, although it has competed hard (and often lost) as smartphones overtook the larger devices as consumers’ computers of choice.
Moving deeper into self-driving technology is part of Intel’s bigger strategy to build up its position in emerging areas of computing. Other verticals that Intel has focused on include connected “objects” (IoT) and virtual and augmented reality. It has been following through on this strategy with acquisitions as well as organic growth.
Intel has disclosed several other acquisitions in Israel to fill out that strategy, including buying a personal assistant platform from Ginger Software; Omek Interactive for gesture-based technologies; and Replay Technologies for 3D video.
Intel is not the only company that is investing in and acquiring startups in the area of computer vision to raise its game in the area of autonomous cars.
Just earlier today, Valeo, the automotive parts giant, announced that it had acquired gestigon , a start‑up out of Germany that develops in-car 3D image processing software — used both to communicate to the driver as well as pick up signals from within the car and from the driver to communicate to a self-driving (or partially self-driving) car what to do next.
Terms of the deal, which includes staff as well as IP, were not disclosed. Valeo has been a regular investor in autonomous driving tech, taking a stake, for example, in French autonomous shuttle company Navya and getting a license in California to test self-driving cars. This latest acquisition shows that it remains serious about doing more in this area.
More to come.

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Everyone is cloning Snap right now, but messaging app Viber has gone back to the old school by copying Snapchat’s core ephemeral messaging feature. Unlike..
Everyone is cloning Snap right now, but messaging app Viber has gone back to the old school by copying Snapchat’s core ephemeral messaging feature.
Unlike Facebook, which has thrown Snapchat’s 24-hour Story mode into all of its core mobile apps , Viber — which was acquired by Rakuten for just shy of $1 billion three years ago — has copied the original feature that helped Snapchat first make its name in messaging.
Today, Viber for iOS and Android got an update today which brings ‘Secret Chats’ to the service for the first time. Like Snapchat, Facebook, Telegram and many others before it, Viber now enables its users to set a timer for their messages after which they will self-destruct. The new feature also alerts a user if the person they are talking to takes a screenshot, that’s another feature that Snapchat pioneered.
Viber has claimed for some time that its service has over 800 million registered users, but it has kept silent on how many of those are actually active — that’s the all important number. It has a strong network of users in certain parts of Latin America and North Africa, and in Myanmar and the Philippines in Southeast Asia, but it is far from as universally popular as WhatsApp or Messenger.
It’s been a fairly hectic past few months of news for Viber. It named formerly mobile advertising executive Djamel Agaoua as its CEO last month — founding CEO Talmon Marco left the company some time ago; he currently runs Uber rival Juno — while it has added a range of new features that include an e-commerce button , public accounts , one-touch video calling , and disappearing multimedia.
With the global messaging space pretty settled as the apps of choice have solidified their positions in most parts of the world, Viber applies to be pushing its security credentials in a bit to differentiate itself from the rest. It added end-to-end encryption and hidden chats last year, although researchers raised doubts around some of the company’s claims.

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Uber alternative Hailo, which lets people hail a licensed taxi via smartphone app, is coming to the end of the road in London, as users are now being urged to..
Uber alternative Hailo , which lets people hail a licensed taxi via smartphone app, is coming to the end of the road in London, as users are now being urged to switch to new ride-hailing vehicle, mytaxi.
Hailo users in London have until the end of May to switch — after which the app will be switched off.
Last July the London-based company which was started by ex-cabbies sold a majority stake to car company Daimler, and announced plans to merge and rebrand with the latter’s on-demand taxi app, mytaxi — seeking greater scale across Europe.
The Hailo-mytaxi merger process is evidently taking a little time. Last month the company announced the official launch of mytaxi in London but Hailo users were told to hang fire for further instructions on how to migrate their accounts.
That migration process is now live, with Hailo app users being directed via a personalized link to download mytaxi — avoiding the need for them to register, login or add account details.
“They are automatically logged in and their Hailo account details will be ready and waiting, meaning they can start hailing cabs straight away,” the company notes today.
Similarly, the brand merger was announced in another Hailo city, Barcelona, back in January but the Hailo app hasn’t yet been switched off there entirely either. But the eventual aim is to consolidate operations across Europe under the mytaxi brand.
Across Europe, mytaxi has around 100,000 registered drivers whose taxis can be hailed via the app, and is available in more than 50 cities across nine countries — with a tenth country (Greece) due to be added soon after mytaxi acquired local player Taxibeat last month .

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Engie, the Israeli startup that offers a car diagnostics device and app to enable you to better understand the health of your car, tied to a marketplace for..
Engie , the Israeli startup that offers a car diagnostics device and app to enable you to better understand the health of your car, tied to a marketplace for local mechanics, sees its full U. K. launch today.
Priced at £14.99 for Android users or £19.99 for iOS, Engie’s Bluetooth device plugs into you car’s on-board computer and via the accompanying Engie app tells you what might be wrong with your vehicle, or what repairs might be required in the near future.
I’m told this includes anything from engine malfunctions, emission and fuel consumption, to battery condition and maintenance information.
It then takes that information — thus making sense of the various data points that a car’s diagnostic ‘black box’ already monitors — and connects you to the Engie after-market mechanic marketplace, which includes TripAdvisor-styled reviews and price comparisons for any work and parts required.
One caveat: The device claims to work with any car manufactured from 2002 except diesel cars, which are supported from 2005. The latter means that I’ve been unable to test Engie (yes, my car is old ).
Once a specific malfunction is detected, the Engie app will alert local repair shops in its marketplace, who will assess the problem and send back a quote for required work. This also forms the basis for the startup’s business model: it takes a 6 per cent commission on each job booked via the app.
Last June, Yarden Gross, co-founder and CEO of Engie, told me the inspiration for the startup came from his own feeling of being at the mercy of mechanics and the auto industry anytime something went wrong with his car.
He had no idea if he was being taken for a ride (pun intended) in terms of what he was being told needed repair or the cost of parts. Better technology and a more transparent marketplace — or, more specifically, Engie was the answer.
Gross also said that, since each manufacturer or car model has different diagnostics interfaces and data points, producing a universal diagnostics card and app is non-trivial, involving a certain amount of reverse-engineering and gleaning of auto industry data.
Since launching in 2015, the company claims 100,000 registered users and works with 200 mechanics in Israel.

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