Vodafone Group yesterday said it had agreed to buy an Italian provider of electronics services to the car industry for 145 million euros (US$197 million) as part of its strategy to connect millions of devices such as cars and other machines.
The British telecommunications company said it had agreed to buy Cobra Automotive Technologies, a provider of security, telecommunications and vehicle tracking for the automotive and insurance industries.
Vodafone, like other mobile operators, is looking to expand into the so-called machine-to-machine (M2M) industry to connect devices within sectors, including healthcare, automotive, transportation and energy.
Mobile carriers around the world expect M2M to be a significant source of growth. Examples already in use include smart meters that monitor energy usage at homes, or devices in offices that tell an owner when their coffee machine needs restocking.
Vodafone said it would offer 1.49 euros a share to buy out the shareholders in the Italian group.
Cobra’s majority shareholder, Intek Group, said in a statement that it had agreed to tender its 51.4 percent stake in Cobra for 74.3 million euros.
“The combination of Vodafone and Cobra will create a new global provider of connected car services,” Erik Brenneis, director of M2M at Vodafone said.
“We plan to invest in the business to offer our automotive and insurance customers a full range of telematics services,” he said.
The deal values Cobra Automotive, which is based in Italy and listed on the Milan stock exchange, at the equivalent of ￡115 million (US$195 million). The company has operations in Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland.
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