Mexican Media Brands
GM Ponders Separate Stock for Cruise Automation Unit
General Motors Co. has launched an internal discussion that could lead to spinning off the company’s 2-year-old Cruise Automation unit in a few years, sources tell Bloomberg News.
#robotics
Share
General Motors Co. has launched an internal discussion that could lead to spinning off the company’s 2-year-old Cruise Automation unit in a few years, sources tell Bloomberg News.
But the sources say GM is more likely to retain the business and either give it a separate tracking stock or offer less than 20% of the unit’s equity. Either of those options would enable GM to retain control of the high-performing tech unit, while giving the business a way to attract and reward talent.
GM has offered trading stocks before. When the company acquired Electronic Data Systems Inc. in 1984, it created special GME shares. The move enabled GM to decouple EDS and its value from the carmaker’s own stock performance.
Bloomberg says no decision to alter Cruise Automation’s financial structure is likely until the fledgling autonomous vehicle and ride-hailing business moves beyond prototypes and concepts and begins offering actual products.
GM acquired Cruise Automation and its 50 employees in 2016 for about $1 billion in cash and management incentives. Last month Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund agreed to invest $2.3 billion in the company, based on a market evaluation of $11.5 billion.
RELATED CONTENT
-
On Audi and Volvo's Green Initiatives, Bentley Design and more
Audi takes to the river to reduce plastic waste, Volvo focuses on a new category of consumers, Bentley once used a Bob Ross-approach during styling development, why Ford’s BlueOval City is the past brought to today, and some new terms that you should keep in mind
-
On EV's, ADAS, and a Pickup Truck
Several industry-related items that you’ve not likely to have seen anywhere else. (At least not all together.)
-
On Automotive: From Supercars to Supply Chains to Stamping
New tech developments in automotive ranging from the e-motor for a McLaren supercar to how Volkswagen Group is using artificial intelligence for supply chain monitoring to how Nissan is stamping without dies
