Samsung buys Harman to take on the Apple Car

Samsung may be down, but it’s not out – it seems deeply committed to the mobile industry and this morning announced a new deal to take on Cupertino: an $8 billion purchase of Harman International.

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If this deal goes through it will be the biggest acquisition Samsung’s made. It’s biggest was apparently an $800 million purchase of AST. The investment means it has bought itself the chance to become a big cheese in future automotive systems, a direct challenge to Apple’s CarPlay and to Google Auto.

CarPlay is already in use by over 40 automakers with numerous vehicles now being made available with it built-in. Apple’s worked hard to achieve such scale, but now it looks like Samsung has bought it in one -- Harman reached major deals with Fiat Chrysler and General Motors, has $24 billion of orders booked and its equipment is already in use in 30 million cars.

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