This photo, taken on Jan. 25, 2021, shows the corporate flag of Samsung Group at its office building in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co.’s acquisition of additional shares in robot developer Rainbow Robotics is igniting interest on whether it will resume large-scale merger and acquisition (M&A) initiatives, which have been halted for about six years.
The South Korean tech giant can become the largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics depending on how many call options it exercises. Once such options are exercised, its stake in the robot platform company could increase to 59.94 percent.
In addition, Rainbow Robotics plans to push to appoint Yoon Joon-oh, the vice-president of Samsung’s planning team who led the transaction, as a non-executive director during its shareholder meeting scheduled to be held at the end of this month.
Previously, Samsung unveiled a plan to release a senior-specialized exercise-assisting robot called EX1 by the end of this year.
Against this backdrop, Samsung’s acquisition of additional shares in Rainbow Robotics, which has been developing multi-legged robot platform technology, could be a signal indicating that it would relaunch its M&A initiatives.
“Although the detailed background behind Samsung’s latest investment has not been disclosed, Samsung’s pursuit of automation using Rainbow Robotics’ collaboration robot and the development of robot products through mutual cooperation would have served as the main driver of the transaction,” said Yang Seung-yoon, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities Co.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
