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Harman International Industries is in the process of being acquired by Samsung in a whopping $8 billion deal, which will mark the Korean giant's entry into the automotive industry. Harman is famous for manufacturing top of the line audio systems, smartcar accessories and other automobile entertainment systems for companies such as GM and Fiat. In an official statement by Samsung, Vice-Chairman Kwon Oh-Hyun mentioned that "Harman perfectly complements Samsung in terms of technologies, products and solutions, and joining forces is a natural extension of the automotive strategy we have been pursuing for some time."
The all-cash deal, when it goes through, will result in Samsung acquiring Harman Industries at $112 per share. Although it will take some time before the buyout is completed, Samsung is looking to finish all the necessary formalities by the end of Q3, 2017, including approvals from the regulators and of course, share holders. It would be interesting to see if any of the new protectionist strategies which could be adopted by the new Trump govenment, interferes with this deal concerning an Asian company acquiring an US business.
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)
We heard back in November last year that Samsung was about to acquire Harman Internationals and now the acquisition is complete. The all-cash deal was completed for a whopping $8 billion, with each of the former Harman shareholders getting 112 USD for every stock they owned.
The good news for those working in Harman is that all staff and other workforce will be retained. Harman will continue to function as a standalone company, but of course, as a Samsung subsidiary. Although Young Sohn (President and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics) will now become the chairman of the board of directors at Harman, Dinesh Paliwal will still remain as the CEO of Harman. Samsung is also keeping all of Harman's audio brands like Harman/Kardon, as expected.
This acquisition is one of Samsung's multiple initiatives to venture into the automotive industry. Even then, it makes us wonder if the upcoming Note 8 will feature some of the audio specialties of Harman in them. If you are wondering the same about the Galaxy S8, then you should know that it's too late for that! Nevertheless, we hope for the S8 to feature better audio capabilities than the tinny speakers Samsung packed into the S7 and S7 Edge last year.
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)
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