Canadian supplier Magna said on Tuesday it agreed to acquire Veoneer Active Safety from investment firm SSW Partners for $1.53 billion in cash to strengthen its autonomous driving technology portfolio.
The deal is expected to increase Magna's sensor and complete system capabilities, including radar, cameras and driver monitoring, and add 2,200 systems, software and sensor development engineers. Veoneer Active Safety sales are expected to be approximately $1.1 billion in 2022, rising to approximately $1.9 billion in 2024. The deal is expected to close near mid-2023,
Magna said in a statement. It's no surprise that
is selling the business. SSW acquired the unit in October 2021 in a $4.5 billion deal that included Qualcomm's acquisition of Veoneer's Arriver self-driving software unit. At the time, Magna was also bidding for the same Veoneer assets, but Qualcomm and SSW won the bid after outbidding Magna by 18%.
There was immediate speculation last year that Magna would eventually bid for Qualcomm's unwanted Veoneer active security business line. "We plan to accelerate innovation by building on the strengths of both organizations, including customers, suppliers, technology partners and employees,"
Magna CEO Swamy Kotagiri said in a statement. The company scheduled a morning press conference to discuss the acquisition.
Automakers and suppliers have been fine-tuning their approaches to self-driving and driver-assistance systems as they work to make meaningful progress in deploying robotaxis on public roads. Volkswagen Group and Ford Motor Co. withdrew their support from self-driving company Argo last month after plowing billions of dollars into the startup. Other automakers such as Tesla Inc. have also fallen short of their self-driving goals.
