Himax to Exercise Options to Fully Acquire Emza Visual Sense

Himax Technologies, Inc. announced that it has decided to exercise its options to fully acquire Emza Visual Sense Ltd. Terms of the investment were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2018.
 
Emza is an Israeli company dedicated to the development of efficient visual sensors that include proprietary machine-vision algorithms and specific architectures that enable always-on visual sensing capabilities, achieving orders of magnitude improvement in power consumption, price and form factor.
 
Aiming at the booming computer vision market, Himax made a strategic cash investment for 45.1% equity of Emza in April 2017, with one-year options to acquire the remaining 54.9% of Emza’s equity and all outstanding stock options. The acquisition will allow Himax to fully leverage the synergy between the two companies into producing visual sensors that integrate camera, hardware and algorithms and operate at unprecedented power, cost and size. Emza will continue as it is after the acquisition and will maintain Emza company brand as well as the WiseEye brand product lines.
 
“With the full acquisition of Emza, Himax will be uniquely positioned for IoT solutions, which require tight integration of the critical skills and knowledge of Himax’s CMOS technology and ASIC design with Emza’s computer vision algorithms. Himax will be positioned to offer significant value to our customers and to enter new markets beyond consumer electronics, such as connected homes, smart buildings and security, and extend our reach into new IoT markets with interest in other Himax products such as our 3D sensing solutions,” said Jordan Wu, president and CEO of Himax Technologies.