If we are to judge where Harman’s main priorities may lie following its acquisition by Samsung by its first post-deal investment, it seems (as thought) there will be a strong focus on increasing its offerings for the connected car market.
Following last month's news that Samsung are to drop a cool $8/£6.3 billion (at a huge $112/£89 per share) on acquiring Harman International Industries Inc., the industry was abuzz as to what this means for the residential and broader AV world. The first matter of business for Harman coincides with what many believed would follow the deal – a strong focus on automotive technology (to battle the likes of Apple) – with its investment in a car dashboard projector created by start-up Navdy (which has now amassed $42/£33 million).
The heads-up display sits above the steering wheel and project information from a driver’s smartphone onto a transparent screen, providing updates to the driver (such as texts or phone calls, driving directions and music information). According to Navdy’s CEO, Harman will work on selling co-branded devices directly to car manufacturers in 2017. The hardware company has sold around 20,000 pre-orders since 2014.
In the press release announcing the acquisition published on November 14, 2016, Samsung focused automotive technologies and audio brands from Harman (such as JBL, AKG and Lexicon), yet made no mention of its automation offering AMX – instead referring to the broader IoT market. With Samsung’s strong focus on pushing its mass market automation offering for this space, SmartThings, time will tell what kind of role AMX will now play in the residential market.