Porsche SE acquires ~10% stake in real-time traffic information company INRIX; 1st step to complementing investment in VW AG
12 September 2014
Porsche Automobil Holding SE has acquired a stake of around 10% in INRIX, one of the leading providers of real-time traffic information. The investment volume is around $55 million. For Porsche SE, the acquisition is the first step towards creating a portfolio of investments complementing its existing shareholding in Volkswagen AG.
Porsche Automobil Holding SE is a listed holding company and holds the majority of the ordinary shares in the Volkswagen Group, one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers. The Volkswagen Group comprises twelve brands from seven European countries: Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN.
In addition to this anchor shareholding, Porsche SE intends to make further strategic investments along the automotive value chain. This comprises the entire spectrum of basic technologies geared to supporting the development and production process through to vehicle- and mobility-related services.
Connectivity between cars and infrastructure is one of the important mega trends in the automotive industry. The need for traffic-related information and data-based solutions is therefore growing fast. We see a tremendous potential in this segment of the automotive value chain.
—Philipp von Hagen, member of Porsche SE’s executive board responsible for investment management
As part of the strategic investment, von Hagen joins the board of directors at INRIX. Von Hagen said that Porsche SE is examining additional investments related to the topics of connectivity and mobility.
With Porsche SE, we have found an investor who shares our vision for transforming INRIX from a traffic data company to a connected car and smart cities leader worldwide.
—Bryan Mistele, President and CEO of INRIX
INRIX holds a leading position worldwide in the area of real-time traffic information, where continued double-digit growth is expected in the coming years. The company is a pioneer in the development of technologies for the collection and interpretation of traffic data.
The INRIX Traffic Intelligence platform continuously analyzes real-time data from various sources including a crowd-sourced network of more than 175 million data sources such as vehicles and mobile devices. Today, the company provides real-time traffic information for around 6.4 million kilometers (around 4 million miles) of roads across 40 countries and is continuously adding more roads and countries to its coverage.
Apart from comprehensive information on road traffic conditions, INRIX has smart analysis tools for a range of applications such as traffic forecasting. The company currently offers services for the six market segments automotive, public sector, mobile enterprise, fleet, media and real estate. The range of services includes inter alia real-time traffic information and navigation data, visualization of traffic data for media-enabled presentation as well as traffic data analytics and accurate traffic-related forecasts for traffic management, such as for cities and municipalities or transport and logistics.
They should computerize-informatize all traffic lights for minimum downtime. They can put camera and sensors and the computer handle the traffic lights to minimize waste of energy and reduce the downtime at minimum.
I noticed that we wait anormaly long on traffic lights and that traffic is bogus, it should now be handle by informatics.
Posted by: gorr | 12 September 2014 at 07:40 AM