Apple is up with a plan to acquire PrimeSense, an Israel based 3D-sensing company.
As per the news story published in the Calcalist financial newspaper on Sunday, the deal between the two companies has been locked for $345 million. The 3D-sensing company is best known for powering Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect. iRobot’s Ava, Asus’ Xtion and 3D scanners also use company’s technology.
Sources close to the matter reported that the deal is not yet done and it might take a week before it is inked. According to a report on AllThingsD sources familiar with the matter claim that the deal at $345 is “a bit of a letdown, but a decent outcome.”
A spokeswoman for PrimeSense said “We are focused on building a prosperous company while bringing 3D sensing and natural interaction to the mass market in a variety of markets such as interactive living room and mobile devices.”
“We do not comment on what any of our partners, customers or potential customers are doing and we do not relate to rumors or recycled rumors”, she added.
PrimeSense has already raised around $85 million from Canaan Partners Global, Gemini Israel, Genesis Partners and other Israeli and US venture capital funds and was recently valued at $250 million. PrimeSense started off with large stationary sensors, but its shift to mobile sensors with its recently released Capri may have been the one that attracted Apple.
If the deal is chalked, it would be Apple’s second Israeli acquisition, the first being Anobit, a flash storage chip maker company, for which the iPad maker paid $400 million last year.
