Mobileye, the Israeli company owned by Intel that develops automated driving systems, filed confidentially for its initial public offering IPO on Monday with the SEC. There is no word yet as to the details of the IPO, such as the price of the stock to be issued, but Reuters cited sources as saying that the company could end up with a valuation of $50 billion.
There is nothing unusual about a company going public. But the strange thing here is that this would actually be the second IPO for Mobileye. In 2014 the company held its first IPO on the NYSE, raising about $1 billion at a market cap of $5.3billion. At the time this made it the most successful Israeli IPO of all time. If the $50 billion figure holds then Mobileye will once again set the record for biggest Israeli IPO.
So, why a second IPO? Well, in 2017 Intel bought out the company for $15.3billion. And now it looks to make a big return on its investment by taking Mobileye public again. Intel, however, said in the past that it intends to retain majority control in Mobileye after its second IPO, so there is no way to know how much of the company it intends to sell. But at a $50 billion valuation, Intel would only need to sell off a third of the company’s ownership to make a profit on its initial investment. That would equate to a huge windfall for Intel as it would still retain two thirds ownership of Mobileye.
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Founded in 1999, Mobileye offers autonomous-driving and driver-assist technologies, harnessing “world-renowned expertise in computer vision, machine learning, mapping, and data analysis.” The idea is simple: warning systems alert drivers of a possible collision. Eventually, the idea is to have entirely self-driving cars that can avoid accidents entirely.
Mobileye says that its technology enables self-driving vehicles and mobility solutions, powers industry-leading advanced driver-assistance systems, and delivers valuable intelligence to optimize mobility infrastructure. Mobileye pioneered technologies such as True Redundancy sensing, REM crowdsourced mapping, and Responsibility Sensitive Safety (RSS) technologies that are driving the ADAS and AV fields towards the future of mobility.
Mobileye had revenue of $1.4 billion in 2021, up 39% from 2020.