Samsung is ready to pay $8 billion for Harman’s automotive and premium audio expertise

It’s somewhat ironic, but instead of waiting to see how a far-reaching current mobile industry stagnation plays out and maybe cut expenses in the face of underwhelming financial reports of late, several tech veterans and market leaders continue to branch out and splash the cash on mergers and acquisitions.

Wireless service provider extraordinaire Verizon is still keen to spend as much as $4.8 billion on oft-loathed Yahoo to build an unstoppable digital media beast, smartphone processor-making specialist Qualcomm will become an IoT force to be reckoned with once its $47B NXP purchase closes, and perhaps most surprising of all, Samsung is now annexing Harman.

Now, as in mere months after the unprecedented Galaxy Note 7 scandal erupted, costing the world’s largest smartphone vendor billions in direct and indirect short-term losses, plus billions more down the road.

Granted, this $8 billion deal is only expected to be sealed sometime in “mid-2017”, if Harman shareholders and regulatory approvals give it the green light, which should be just a formality. There will obviously be no opposition from investors, considering the 28 percent premium Samsung has agreed to cough up based on the 1980-founded American company’s November 11 closing stock price.

It goes without saying HTC will never get to release another Harman Kardon Edition handheld, though Samsung doesn’t just want to “greatly enhance the competitiveness of its mobile, display, virtual reality and wearable products to deliver a fully differentiated audio experience for customers.”

First and foremost, Harman’s value lies in the automotive industry, with “more than 30 million vehicles currently equipped with its connected car and audio systems, including embedded infotainment, telematics, connected safety and security.” So, yeah, Samsung is finally going after Google’s Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in the “smart car” arena.

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Can the Dash app train you to be a better driver? One year road test!

It’s a rare situation, reviewing an app which almost instantly becomes a service we use every day.The developers behind the Dash driving app are on a mission to help people become safer drivers, and to save those people money by being better drivers. This free app connects to your car’s computer (through the use of some kind of wireless adapter), and collects detailed information on driving habits and engine data. When combine with your phone’s GPS, users can can save extremely detailed mileage logs on every trip they take, get instant notifications on ...

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Eve for Tesla lets you control your home from your car

Tesla has been considered the most high tech auto maker for a while now. Their electric cars are the best in class. Eve is a service for Tesla’s in-car computer that brings a lot of extra functionality to inside the car. What’s more, Eve customers just got even more features that will let them control numerous internet connected home automation systems.The Eve system is entirely web based mainly because there are no APIs for third parties to add apps to the Tesla in-car computer. Basically you sign up for an account, add some set up info then log in from the car’s web ...

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Automatic review: your car, smarter

Since Friday, I have spent a total of six hours and eight minutes driving. I traveled 181.7 miles, averaging 32.7 miles per gallon. And the total amount of money I’ve spent driving since Friday is $19.10. But I can get even more detailed than that. I spent $0.69 driving to the office yesterday morning – a trip which was 7.3 miles. The trip to IKEA on Saturday cost me $0.99 and was 9.4 miles. I stayed under 70mph, hit the gas a little too hard once, and slammed on the brakes once, too. I know all of this because I plugged a module into the OBD (on-board diagnostic) port in our car ...

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