Himax Technologies, Inc. Announces Divestiture of Emza Visual Sense Subsidiary

Link:  https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022
/10/28/2543724/8267/en/Himax-Technologies-Inc-Announces-Divestiture-of-Emza-Visual-Sense-Subsidiary.html

 

TAINAN, Taiwan, Oct. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Himax Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HIMX) (“Himax” or “Company”), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today announced that it has divested its wholly owned subsidiary Emza Visual Sense Ltd. (“Emza”), a company dedicated to the development of proprietary vision machine-learning algorithms. Following the transaction, Himax will continue to partner with Emza. The divestiture will not affect the existing business with the leading laptop customer where Himax continues to be the supplier for the leading-edge ultralow power AI processor and always-on CMOS image sensor.

WiseEyeTM, Himax’s total solution for ultralow power AI image sensing, includes Himax proprietary AI processors, CMOS image sensors, and CNN-based machine-learning AI algorithms, all featuring unique characteristics of ultralow power consumption. For the AI algorithms, Himax has historically adopted a business model where it not only develops its own solutions through an in-house algorithm team and Emza, a fully owned subsidiary before the divestiture, but also partners with multiple third-party AI algorithm specialists as a way to broaden the scope of application and widen the geographical reach. Moving forward, the AI business model will be unchanged where the Company will continue to develop its own algorithms and work with third-party algorithms partners, including Emza.

The Company continues to collaborate with its ecosystem partners to jointly make the WiseEye AI solution broadly accessible to the market, aiming to scale up adoption in numerous relatively untapped end-point AI markets. Tremendous progress has been made so far in areas such as laptop, desktop PC, automatic meter reading, video conference device, shared bike parking, medical capsule endoscope, automotive, smart office, battery cam and surveillance, among others. Additionally, Himax is committed to strengthening its WiseEye product roadmap while retaining its leadership position in ultralow power AI processor and image sensor. By targeting even lower power consumption and higher AI inference performance that leverage integral optimization from hardware to software, the Company believes it can capture the vast end-point AI opportunities presented ahead.