Vodafone Plans Connected Car Push With £115m Cobra Acquisition

Telecoms giant Vodafone has announced its intention to acquire  Cobra Automotive Technologies, as it seeks to up its Internet of Things game by pushing further into the connected car market.

If given the green light, the deal will cost Vodafone £115 million after it formed an agreement with the main shareholders of Cobra, an Italian company that primarily focuses on devices for car safety and geolocation.

Vodafone looks to connected car future

A formal offer will likely be made in the coming weeks and Vodafone is likely to spend another £16 million on a 20 percent stake in the Cobra Telematics subsidiary held by minority shareholders.

The telecoms firm said the deal would “enable Vodafone to provide a more comprehensive range of end-to-end services to automotive customers”.

“The combination of Vodafone and Cobra will create a new global provider of connected car services. We plan to invest in the business to offer our automotive and insurance customers a full range of telematics services,” said Erik Brenneis, director of machine to machine at Vodafone.

If the deal is accepted and doesn’t breach any competition regulations, the deal should complete in the third quarter of 2014.

Earlier this year, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said the firm had enough in its coffers to spend as much as £24.1 billion on acquisitions in the next few years.

In February, it completed the sale of its 45 percent stake in the US operator Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications for $130 billion (£78.2bn).

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