Mobileye NV Amsterdam (NYSE:MBLY), a firm that is developing a promising auto-camera navigation technology, skyrocketed in its initial public offering on Friday, August 1st. Investors apparently agreed that global automakers’ strong desire to improve safety ratings would boost demand for the company’s unique camera-based systems that help drivers avoid collisions.
Shares of the company surged at the bell this morning, up more than $14 at one point to reach a high of $39.40 on the New York Stock Exchange. At $39 per share, the Israeli technology firm is valued at about $8 billion.
Mobileye’s innovative technology
The Israeli firm’s ground-breaking technology detects other vehicles and objects with just the use of a camera and sophisticated software based on proprietary algorithms, unlike other most other auto navigation systems which use complex radar-based sensors.
Furthermore, Mobileye NV Amsterdam (NYSE:MBLY)’s technology is already installed in over three million vehicles produced by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (ETR:BMW) (FRA:BMW), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and other firms. Like Google and others, the new auto-navigation technology firm has disclosed that it is working on developing a self-driving car.
More on Mobileye
The technology company was established back in 1999 by Amnon Shashua, a professor of computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, together with Israeli businessman Ziv Aviram.
Shashua is the chairman and Aviram the CEO of Mobileye NV Amsterdam (NYSE:MBLY). Both execs sold shares in today’s successful offering, but each man also retains an 8% stake. The two execs raised a total of $92 million from their share of the proceeds of the IPO.
