© firaxissmooke dreamstime.com
Business |
paragon acquires 82 percent of SemVox
paragon is creating a new business division for digital assistance systems, the company is acquiring 82 percent of the shares in SemVox GmbH, Saarbrücken, for EUR 16.4 million.
The tech company develops efficient solutions for voice control, diverse human-machine interaction and intelligent assistance systems based on artificial intelligence.
The sellers of the stake are the four founders of SemVox and four investors, including the German Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH, Saarbrücken, and M. Ladendorf Beteiligung GmbH, Trier. The four founders will continue to hold shares in the company for at least three years and will assume management and executive functions. The transaction will be completed by the beginning of October 2018 at the latest, a press release reads.
SemVox GmbH was founded ten years ago as a spin-off of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (Saarbrücken) and has its customers in the automotive industry. SemVox employs more than 60 people in Saarbrücken.
"In the new connected world of automobiles, every vehicle is a digital device on wheels that communicates with the driver and the environment," explains Klaus Dieter Frers, CEO of paragon GmbH, in the release. "We are very pleased that we have won the pearl of artificial intelligence in Germany for ourselves and that we are thus realizing the announced entry into the digital business. Once again we are demonstrating that we can find smart answers to the influential trends in the automotive industry".
"We are very happy that new and exciting opportunities are opening up for SemVox and its employees now as part of the paragon Group. Together we will significantly increase our influence in the value chain of the new digital ecosystems developing with high dynamics," emphasises Dr.-Ing. Norbert Pfleger, Chairman of the Management Board of SemVox GmbH, who will continue to be a top member of the management team.