Yesterday we reported that Samsung were in talks to purchase Corephotonics, an Israeli company who designs camera systems for mobile devices. Today reports are surfacing that it has done that, to the tune of US$155 million.
Globes, an Israeli business publication is today reporting that Samsung has “agreed to acquire” Corephotonics for US$155 million, smack bang in the rumoured price range. At this stage little else is known about the deal but this purchase is by Samsung themselves, and not Samsung Ventures, their investment arm who already was an investor in the company. Other investors include Foxconn, MediaTek and SanDisk.
There are several large gaps, above all an optical zoom lens. Real zoom does not exist in a smartphone camera, which only has a digital zoom that is actually a manipulation of the image.Dr. Gal Shabtay, chief development officer of Corephotonics
Corephotonics works with all of the large smartphone manufacturers to help provide solutions for their camera modules and is also rumoured to be expanding its technology to vehicles, drones and security systems. It is unknown where there developing uses for the technology will still be developed but we suspect Samsung will keep development in all areas. It is also unknown what this means for OPPO’s optical zoom technology with Corephotonics reportedly behind its design.
Corephotonics also has a pending lawsuit against Apple claiming that Apple use one of their patented technologies in their iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus. Once again this places Samsung against Apple inside a courtroom.
Once again a company has purchased someone else’s technology by acquiring a smaller company instead of developing it themselves. There are numerous examples of this in the mobile industry so it is far from unusual. It is unknown when Samsung will release this optical zoom technology to the market but it is obvious that Samsung are ready to take large steps to gain back their currently dwindling dominance in the smartphone market.
