April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korean autonomous driving tech firm Esmo on May 24 denied a news report that it was in talks with Samsung Electronics for a possible merger deal.

“The report is not true,” the KOSDAQ listed firm said in a regulatory filing without further elaborating. 

Earlier on the day, the report said Samsung started talks with Esmo early this month to acquire a sizeable stake, including management rights.

Following the report, Esmo shares were on a wide roller-coaster ride. The stock soared more than 20 percent at one point but after the firm’s official denial the price fell sharply to be trading at 8,210 won (US$7.60) as of 1:30p.m., down 5.52 percent from the previous day.

Esmo specializes in manufacturing wiring harness for in-car communications -- a key technology for self-driving cars. The firm, formerly Nexen Tech, was spun off from Korean midsized industrial company Nexen in July last year. Its revenue reached 82.3 billion won in 2017.

In January this year, the firm set up a new unit, called NDM, to team up with US voice-recognition startup Apollo and the two firms are working on the Korean version of the US firm’s system that controls air-conditioning, navigation and braking systems with voice commands.

The report said Samsung is also interested in acquiring the voice recognition technology as part of its recent automotive push for futuristic vehicles.

Esmo plans to supply its operating system for self-driving cars to car-sharing companies like Uber to allow them to offer self-driving features for their conventional vehicles.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)