Samsung Electronics will acquire Corephotonics, an Israeli multi-camera maker. This is Samsung's first acquisition this year and the third acquisition since the return of Vice President Li Zaiyu to management last February.
According to financial industry and foreign news reports, Samsung will complete the acquisition of Corephotonics equity held by its largest shareholder by the end of this month, with a total acquisition value of between US $ 150 million and US $ 160 million (165 billion to 180 billion won).
It is understood that Corephotonics was founded by Professor David Mendlovic and Tel Aviv University in 2012. It has core technologies related to multi-cameras, such as optical zoom, low-light photography and wide-angle photography. Corephotonics' technology has been rated as the highest in the industry.
In addition, in 2017, Corephotonics also sued Apple for patent infringement on its smartphone camera technology. According to the lawsuit documents, the four technology patents involved were approved by the US Trademark and Patent Office from November 2013 to June 2016, and involved dual camera technologies such as optical zoom and miniature telephoto lenses in smart phones.
Corephotonics claims that Apple applied its patented dual-aperture camera technology for mobile phones to the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus without the authorization of Corephotonics. Corephotonics has accused Apple of using mobile phones with telephoto lenses, optical zoom, integrated wide-angle and telephoto lenses to achieve smart zoom and to improve image quality without the company's permission.
Samsung attaches great importance to the most advanced technology of startups and hopes to continue to cooperate with Corephotonics through investment and technical cooperation. In early 2017, Samsung Ventures had invested $ 15 million in Corephotonics with Taiwanese companies Foxconn and Mediatech. In addition, Corephotonics technology has been applied to Samsung smartphones released after the Galaxy Note 8.
It is worth mentioning that this is Samsung's third acquisition after the return of Vice President Li Zaiyu. The company acquired Kngine, an American artificial intelligence search engine company, in March last year, and Zhilabs, a Spanish network quality analysis and solution company, in October last year.