Amazon to acquire self-driving Automaker Zoox for over ₦465 Billion

Zoox an American autonomous vehicle company currently headquartered in Foster City, California with multiple offices of operations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. As of June 2020, Zoox currently has around 900 employees, after it had to cut 10% of its staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon intends to work with Zoox to create more fleet of self-driving cars, But analysts also suggested that Amazon may use Zoox to build self-driving delivery vehicles too to boost the delivery time of Amazon products.

Amazon has also bought similar electric vehicle manufacturers but Zoox will operate as a standalone business, Amazon said, with its leadership unchanged.

“Zoox is working to imagine, invent, and design a world-class autonomous ride-hailing experience,” said Jeff Wilke, who runs Amazon’s consumer business.

“Like Amazon, Zoox is passionate about innovation and about its customers, and we’re excited to help the talented Zoox team to bring their vision to reality in the years ahead.”

Talks between Amazon and Zoox were first reported in May.

The purchase price, which has not been officially disclosed, is a steep discount to the 1.24 trillion naira valuation that the six-year-old Zoox had in July 2018, according to two people familiar with the deal.

While Zoox had been planning to launch a pilot programme this year, the company was knocked by the coronavirus pandemic and had been seeking a sale since May