Self-driving tech firm Aurora mulls sale to Apple or Microsoft - Bloomberg News
Reuters
Published Sep 02, 2022 04:00PM ET
Updated Sep 02, 2022 05:31PM ET
(Reuters) -Aurora Innovation Inc Chief Executive Chris Urmson recently outlined several options for the self-driving tech firm to combat challenging market conditions, including a possible sale to Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
Many electric-vehicle and self-driving startups that had raised cash easily through IPOs and mergers with blank-check firms during the market boom are now scrambling to launch vehicles and burning cash rapidly amid a bleak economy and supply-chain snarls.
Reuters reported in 2020 that Apple was moving forward with its self-driving car technology and was targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has invested in San Francisco-based self-driving car maker Cruise, which is valued at $30 billion and counts General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) as a majority stakeholder.
Urmson, who co-founded Aurora after running Google owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc's self-driving car project, also floated measures including cost cuts, taking the company private and spinning off or selling assets, the report said, citing an internal memo. (https://bloom.bg/3ReFDgP)
Aurora declined to comment.
Shares of the company closed 15% higher on Friday, but have lost nearly 80% this year, in a sign of its struggles since going public late last year with a blank-check firm. It has a market cap of about $2.4 billion.
Last month, Aurora said it would delay the delivery of its scalable autonomous freight trucks by a year to the first half of 2024, citing supply constraints.
Other options Urmson suggested in the memo were to buy companies in the sector with $150 million to $300 million of cash, and to freeze hiring and lay off employees, the Bloomberg report said.
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Written By: Reuters
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