The board of directors of Harman International have voted to endorse the purchase of the firm by South Korean tech player Samsung Electronics. The unprecedented deal was initially announced back in Nov. 2014.
Samsung's acquisition of the Harman group will not only provided the tech company its crucial steps on taking on the automotive industry soon but it will also place the company a much firmer support on its mobile devices. This support includes the devices ability to offers built-in premium audio such as Harman Kardon, JBL, Bang & Olufsen, AKG and a lot more, as reported by Phone Arena. It also works with Tesla, Mercedes, Porsche and Jaguar in developing intelligent systems along with its premium car audio equipment.
It added that Harman International's stockholders have unanimously voted for the acquisition. The final count generated 46,921,832 shares that voted in favor of the deal while 2,107,178 shares were against it. Meanwhile, out of 69,883,605 outstanding shares, only 70.8 percent or 49,460,322 were allowed to vote of the said deal. On the other hand, the vote count in favor of the acquisition came after some Harman directors filed a class action suit, indicating their opposition on the transaction. They added that the firm didn't ask for higher bids after receiving the offer from Samsung.
According to GSMArena, Samsung's biggest challenge is now finally behind. However, it added that its new hurdle will commence again as the company seeks for an approval by antitrust committees from the United States, EU, China and South Korea. The Korean company is expecting the deal to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2017.
This significant acquisition by Samsung entails bigger presence of Harman in its future mobile devices. It is expected that the Korean company's forthcoming flagship Samsung Galaxy S8 will be sporting these Harman speakers. The device is slated to be unveiled on March 29.
