Qualcomm to buy Veoneer for $4.5 bn, beating Magna

Chipset major Qualcomm and SSW Partners, a New York-based investment partnership, are set to buy Veoneer for $4.5 billion.
Veoneer, a leading automotive technology group, has terminated its prior acquisition agreement with Canada-based Magna International.

Qualcomm in August offered to buy Veoneer at an 18.4 percent premium to a July bid worth around $3.8 billion by Magna that had already been accepted by Veoneer’s board.

Veoneer said in a statement that Qualcomm and SWW Partners, a New York-based investment partnership, would buy it for $37 per share in cash.

Qualcomm this year signed a collaboration deal with Veoneer to develop a software and chip platform for driver-assistance systems called Arriver.

Veoneer said SSW Partners would buy all outstanding shares of Veoneer and sell the Arriver business to Qualcomm while retaining Veoneer’s Tier-1 supplier businesses.

Magna had a similar interest in buying Veoneer, as it tries to compete with ADAS makers such as Aptiv, Bosch and Continental.