Battle of the Titans?

In response to my latest blog post, Colin Barnden, Lead Analyst at Semicast Research, wrote to me explaining why he thinks Fovio is of strategic importance to both Apple and Alphabet. Indeed, his analysis reinforces myĀ feeling that the two may soon battle it out to acquire Seeing Machines ā€” regardless of any initial low-ball bid in the 25p-30p range from another party that kicks off a bidding war.Ā 

Iā€™ve reproduced his comments in full below so you get the benefit of his insights:

Colin Barnden

ā€œDo you hear the thud? Thatā€™s the sound of the penny dropping in Silicon Valley that autonomous driving is not easy peasy after all. Witness no robo taxi development stories since March, after the Uber crash. As you report today, witness also the speed of conventional OEMs starting to adopt camera-based DMS. This is a technology which I have repeatedly been told by people at Silicon Valley based tech companies is ā€œat best an interim solution and at worst already obsoleteā€. Elon might think something like that, but a steady stream of auto OEMs seem to want to work with Seeing Machines anyhow. My view is that every auto OEM will have announced their plans for camera-based DMS by the end of this year, with most implementing the technology for production from 2021 to 2023.

Apple have been trying to get into automotive for several years. Project Titan never really got off the ground, but CarPlay has been well received. For Alphabet, they have to hedge their position that Level 3 is redundant and have already moved to Level 4. There are many articles discussing this, here is one:Ā https://www.wired.com/2017/01/human-problem-blocking-path-self-driving-cars/

I totally disagree with that view and Level 3 is very much possible, but it needs advanced DMS and sufficient human factors research to understand what humans do in the seconds and minutes following handing over driving to machine intelligence. Seeing Machines are underway with this work, led by Mike LennĆ© and the CAN Drive project. As Tesla have found – and Cadillac proven – you cannot even do Level 2 safely without camera DMS and the recent EC legislation calls for mandatory advanced distraction DMS (camera-based) even for Level 0. Other regions will follow in my view.

Both Apple and Alphabet need it, ideally so the other doesnā€™t have the technology. Whoever wins gets a minimum 3-5 year lead on the other (automotive qualification alone is 3 years – and Fovio is automotive qualified). Remember Zuck bought WhatsApp for $19 billion so Facebook had a potential rival under control. Conventional metrics for valuing a company wonā€™t apply, this would be a straight Battle of the Titans. Iā€™ll be watching.ā€

The writer holds stock in Seeing Machines.

Toyota or bid announcement?

The good news for investors in Seeing Machines is that Iā€™m hearing from multiple sources that Seeing Machines is set to win a contract with Toyota next.

Apparently, itā€™s the only driver monitoring system (DMS) that is being specified in multiple Tier 1 bids – as was the case with the big BMW win recently. If true – and I see no reason to doubt my sourcesā€™ information – it just goes to further reinforce the global domination of Seeing Machinesā€™ Fovio DMS in the auto industry.

Bid coming?

For that reason, Iā€™m not surprised that there are now 10 market makers for the company on the London Stock Exchange, up from 4 a year ago. Most recently, Berenberg have started broking them. The better news is that I think this German bank may be acquiring shares for a company that plans to bid for Seeing Machines.

I could be wrong about that last assumption: Berenberg may be buying for a German fund. Nevertheless, various sources are warning of an imminent low ball bid – somewhere around 25p-30p a share for Seeing Machines.Ā 

Some of my sources believe it is a Tier 1 auto supplier, others discount that theory. Interestingly, when asked about this in a previous interview back in March, Ken Kroeger did tease:Ā ā€œI agree it is either someone like that who can see the full value or a really diverse Tier 2 or Tier 1, as opposed to the OEM.”

While traders might be impressed by that figure, anyone with any knowledge of the auto industry and even an average understanding of Seeing Machines proven technological global dominance in driver monitoring systems shouldnā€™t be.

If such a bid should materialise Iā€™ve been told by multiple sources that certain chip manufacturers (Intel/Nvidia, Xilinx and Qualcomm) would most likely be prepared to offer a lot more than a measly 30p. So I fully expect a competitive bidding situation to materialise if the rumour turns out to be fact.

Seeing Machines house brokers havenā€™t issued any upgrades in a long while. Still, based purely on old figures from Canaccord Genuityā€™s Caspar Trenchard note of Jan 9, (which excludes any figures for the huge Ford winĀ as well as the big BMW win) it must be worth at least 59p a share. That is 30 times forecast revenues for 2019 of A$79.5m = 59p a share.

You could even argue that SEE should be on a higher multiple, such as the 42 times revenue multiple that Intel paid for Mobileye when it went for US$15.3bn. That would equate to roughly 83p a share for Seeing Machines. (This obviously ignores any value for Fleet, Rail and the Caterpillar business).

Yet, the strategic importance of Seeing Machines to the future of transport (never mind vision for robotics) will have been noted far and wide. In such a situation, Iā€™ve been told that the chip companies are often prepared to pay up without months of haggling over the odd US$1bn. Itā€™s small change to them when global domination is at stake.

Even Apple andĀ Alphabet (parent of Waymo) can surely see the sense in DMS, so for what is petty cash for them they could also come in.

The writer holds shares in Seeing Machines.

A$50m Ford win for Seeing Machines

Itā€™s great news that Seeing Machines, working with its Tier 1 partner Autoliv, has won a A$50m contract to supply its Fovio DMS system to Ford. Even better is that itā€™s on its new chip.

Once again my sources have been proven to be correct. Avid readers will note that in a previous blog, entitled: ā€˜Seeing Machines set to win 75% of the global DMS marketā€™ the Ford win was predicted.

Back then, on 16th March, I wrote: ā€œIā€™m being told that Fovio will soon be contracted to Ford, Volvo and Audi. (Thatā€™s in addition to General Motors, Mercedes and BMW). Moreover, those same sources are telling me that by the end of this calendar year Toyota will definitely be committed to using it and, most likely, Honda.ā€

The document containing this latest OEM win was published as part of Autolivā€™s Investor Day presentation and is here: (Note that Veoneer is Autolivā€™s active safety division that will soon be spun-off).

The clues are on page 13 and 17, in which it is revealed that in Q2 2018 Veoneer won a contract with a major global North American OEM for a DMS.

A spokesperson from Autoliv told Safestocks: ā€œWe cannot confirm the OEM name, but I can confirm that we will be working with our partner Seeing Machines for this contract.ā€

That the North American OEM is Ford is beyond argument. Seeing Machines already works with General Motors, Ford is also an important client of Autoliv. Moreover, when questioned Ford did not deny the contract win had taken place. A spokesman said: ā€œUnfortunately, all I can tell you is that we do not discuss our contractualĀ  arrangements with our suppliers.ā€

The writer holds shares in Seeing Machines.