It’s really important for us to understand that, no matter how far we get in our lives, we’ll always have a chance to achieve something even better. This is because, when you reach such a realization, the limitless nature of a human experience instantly becomes clear, and with the said clarity, you end up getting various groundbreaking benefits. Now, if we are to assess these benefits under the real world setting, we’ll see how each one has its own unique appearance, therefore making any comparison between them a little futile. However, despite all the uniqueness in play here, we cannot overlook the fact that no benefit has enjoyed as big of an impact as technology. Technology’s unmatched credentials aren’t just down to the way it has made our lives more convenient, but they also revolve around the creation’s tendency of adding to our horizons. You see, even though we acknowledged how a human experience was already quite limitless, technology somehow managed to expand it even further, and by doing so, it gave us a whole new identity. Today, this fresh identity is evident throughout the spectrum, and Luminar’s latest acquisition should only take it a notch up.
Luminar, a company that builds vision-based lidar and machine perception technologies for autonomous vehicles, is officially set to acquire the cutting-edge laser manufacturer, Freedom Photonics. According to certain reports, the deal will be facilitated through an all-stock transaction, which translates to Luminar transferring over 3 million shares of its common stock to Freedom Photonics’ employees. At the current share prices, the move should put Luminar back by $42.3 Million. Nevertheless, the huge outlay is expected to help the company in regards to better controlling the supply chain costs, while simultaneously enhancing its end product quality. You see, for an autonomous vehicle to function rather seamlessly, it must have enough to recognize objects at far distances. Freedom Photonics aids this cause through two significant components in high-powered laser pulse and high-quality beams, so as far as Luminar’s technological setup is concerned, having these two elements in the mix is an immediate upgrade.
The financial viability of Lidar construction, on the other hand, has long been a sticking question; hence it’s important to keep the costs in check. Luminar’s take on the same is seemingly predicated upon acquisitions. Chasing sub-$100 billion cost for materials, including three key lidar hardware components i.e. the receiver, the ASIC, and the laser, the company has now successfully completed three separate acquisitions.
“Going all-in with Luminar is the perfect opportunity for Freedom Photonics, providing us an accelerated path to at-scale commercialization of our world-class laser chip technologies,” said Milan Mashanovitch, CEO at Freedom Photonic. “In addition to helping extend Luminar’s automotive industry leadership, this provides us greater opportunity to simultaneously support and scale customers in other industry verticals.”