(New York) The American manufacturer General Motors (GM), which since 2016 has owned the majority of the shares of the company specializing in autonomous vehicles Cruise, announced on Friday that it wanted to pay 2.1 billion dollars to buy back those of the Japanese investment giant. Softbank.
Posted yesterday at 6:04 p.m.
GM also plans to invest an additional $1.35 billion in the young company, an amount that Softbank had pledged to pay.
Founded in 2013, Cruise has developed software that allows cars to drive themselves completely. It has just passed a crucial step by offering since the beginning of February to individuals to book free trips in the streets of San Francisco in its driverless cars.
“We are extremely pleased to report that GM is leveraging its strong financial position to capitalize on the opportunity to increase its stake in Cruise and advance our autonomous vehicle strategy,” the CEO said in a statement. builder, Mary Barra.
“We continue to believe that our investment represents an extraordinary opportunity to create long-term shareholder value,” she added.
The title of the venerable manufacturer has been struggling to take off for several years, and has been particularly under pressure since January: it has lost 24% since the start of the year on Wall Street, where it is valued at $65 billion.
Investors seem to favor groups dedicated solely to electric and/or autonomous vehicles like Tesla.
After another round of fundraising from Microsoft, GM, Honda, Walmart and other institutional investors last year, Cruise is valued at more than $30 billion.
The group “will continue to operate as it does today – as an independent company working alongside GM in a flexible and collaborative partnership,” Chief Executive Officer Kyle Vogt said in the statement.