Bid failed: Luminar assets go to Microvision at bankruptcy price

Lidar manufacturer Luminar Technologies is being dismantled, the company liquidated. This is the result of the US company's insolvency proceedings. Luminar owes over half a billion dollars, significantly influenced by a failed cooperation with the Chinese car manufacturer Volvo. Only a fraction of the debts will be recovered. At the last minute, creditors could hope for a better bankruptcy quota.

As the insolvency court was about to confirm the previously conducted auction of Luminar's assets, a new bidder suddenly appeared with a significantly higher sum. Their overbid was said to be considerably better than the auction result of 33 million US dollars. However, after the various parties to the proceedings had hastily deliberated, the court rejected the higher offer as insufficient. The new bidder likely did not demonstrate their solvency with sufficient conviction.

Consequently, Microvision, which had placed the highest bid in the auction, was awarded the assets by the court on Friday. The acquisition of the assets was completed as early as Monday. For 33 million dollars, Microvision is acquiring the intellectual property rights, the inventory of the Halo and Iris lidar models, certain existing contracts, and a portion of the remaining employees. Furthermore, the new operator hopes to win back some former Luminar employees.

Similarly, Microvision acquired assets from the then-insolvent German company Ibeo Automotive Systems at the end of 2022. Like Luminar, Ibeo has also developed lidar (LIght Detection And Ranging). In principle, lidar works by measuring the time it takes for a laser pulse to travel to an object and back again (“Time-of-Flight” method). This allows for the creation of three-dimensional environmental images, which are useful for the military and autonomous vehicles, among other applications. Unlike Microvision, Luminar did not want to work for the military.

Ibeo's Many Chapters

Ibeo has an eventful history: founded in Hamburg in 1998 by Ulrich Leges, the start-up was acquired by Sick AG just two years later. In the same year, VW presented an autonomously driving robot with Ibeo support. The management around Leges remained on board despite the sale to Sick and bought the company back ten years later. Among other things, Ibeo participated in the Darpa Urban Challenge 2007 and made it to the finals.

In 2016, ZF Friedrichshafen AG acquired a 40 percent stake. They were also involved in driver assistance systems (ADAS). However, ZF withdrew in 2022, and Ibeo had to file for insolvency. Subsequently, the developed technology ended up with Microvision, which has had a development center in Hamburg ever since. Now, Ibeo's lidar technology is being merged with that of former competitor Luminar at Microvision. ZF Friedrichshafen recently exited ADAS and sold the division to Samsung subsidiary Harman.

Luminar's End

Luminar has a solvent subsidiary called Luminar Semiconductors, which develops integrated circuits (ASICs) for lidars. This subsidiary is being sold for 110 million US dollars to a photonics company from New Jersey called Quantum Computing.

No other significant insolvency proceeds are in sight, meaning creditors will be left with most of their claims. Not least, the liquidation itself also costs a considerable amount of money. The insolvency proceedings are being conducted at the US federal bankruptcy court for the Southern District of Texas under case number 25-90807.

The identity of the bidder who offered significantly more at the last minute but was unsuccessful is currently not confirmed. TechCrunch suspects the original Luminar founder, Austin Russell, was behind it. According to this, there might have even been another bidder of unknown name who initially had Chinese financiers. This could have failed due to US investment restrictions. Subsequently, this bidder presented other sources of funding, which could only be partially verified.

Microvision has been listed on NASDAQ since 1996 and is based in Redmond, Washington, USA. About 20 years ago, the company was known for its attempt to establish miniature laser projectors in mobile phones.

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