By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
The American multinational corporation Intel is going to acquire Moovit for $1 billion. Meanwhile, Intel (INTC) is slightly down in the pre-market.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) stock traded higher in the after-hours, however, it is slightly down in the pre-market after rumors in the mainstream media spread that the American multinational corporation and technology company is going to purchase Israel’s Moovit for a whopping $1 billion.
The Santa Clara, Silicon Valley Company saw its stock close the previous week at a loss of 4.18% after the shares shed $2.91 and trade at $57.47. However, in the after-hours, the shares had slightly regained the loss and were 0.10% up. At the moment of writing, in the pre-market, INTC stock is 0.45% down, at $57.21.
Intel-Moovit Deal
According to a post on TechCrunch, it was able to get information that Intel is at the final stages of a deal to acquire Moovit, which is a startup that applies artificial intelligence and also big data analytics to track traffic plus provide transit recommendations to over 800 million people in different parts of the world.
The post continued to highlight that the billion-dollar deal is expected to close in the coming days. Whereby Moovit’s spokesperson did not agree nor deny the claims, after being asked for a comment by the news outlet.
“At this time we have no comment, but if anything changes I’ll definitely let you know,” he said. Reliable sources told the news-outlet that Moovit will become part of Intel’s Israeli automotive hub.
The automotive hub is anchored by Mobileye, which is an autonomous driving company that Intel purchased back in 2017 for $15 billion.
Mobileye and Moovit have in the past worked together, whereby Mobileye led the latter in a round of funding, series D of $50 million.
One of the stumping observations made was the fact that Intel Senior Vice President and CEO/ CTO of Mobileye Professor Amnon Shashua previously joined Mobileye Board of Directors as an observer.
Bigger Picture of the Deal
The deal comes at a time when people globally are being advised to stay at home and avoid movement from point A to point B if necessary. As a result, the Moovit customers will have drastically reduced by the end of the coronavirus crisis.
However, although not clear the deeper reason Intel would be acquiring the Israeli startup, Moovit has launched a series of COVID-19 services. Among them include a special service to be used by transit data managers, which is to be offered for free. The service will be used to both receive updated transit and traffic data.
The startup has also set up a real-time service for its users to update on regular alerts. Intel will now become a major employer in Israel both directly and indirectly.