One amusing detail in this merger is that Velodyne had simultaneously sued Ouster for patent infringement and sought a sales ban on its 360-lidars in the United States. That’s how negotiations are done across the pond.
However, the market reaction seems to have been a 15-20% share price drop for both companies. Of course, the deal cannot yet be considered certain due to competition authorities, but I will probably continue to hold.
A somewhat peculiar reaction, as the synergies are significant and should directly and fundamentally have a positive impact on both companies’ costs and profitability going forward. Velodyne received a couple of analyst rating downgrades today, which probably played a part. And going forward, these two will go hand in hand once the share exchange ratio has been defined.
Competition authorities should not have any significant reason to block the merger. There are many players, and this will not create a monopoly in the market – at least not yet.
Yep, I also thought it was a very strange reaction, especially regarding Velodyne. Ouster had a slightly better financial position, order book, and future outlook, so in a way, I understand it from that side, but not for Velodyne. Of course, one can consider negative synergies. Sometimes merged companies lose customers to others in situations where clients need to maintain multiple suppliers. It’s hard to see that happening here either.
EDIT: My guess is that Ouster dropped due to the integration news and Velodyne based on the quarterly results. My reservation about regulators’ stance was solely based on the fact that there isn’t a prior track record of mergers in this LiDAR field yet.
Velodyne and Ouster merger approved; going forward, it will trade under the OUST ticker and name.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3935104-ouster-and-velodyne-complete-merger
San Francisco-based LiDAR sensor company Ouster (NYSE:OUST) announced the completion of a merger with Velodyne (NASDAQ:VLDR) on Monday.
The two companies indicated that their combination will create a stronger company as they seek to capitalize on demand for LiDAR technology. Additionally, the newly combined company will be able to operate with a stronger balance sheet as “over $315M in combined cash: and “ annual cost savings in excess of $75M” are expected to result from the merger.
“We’re thrilled to have completed the merger with Velodyne so quickly, further boosting our financial position and our ability to accelerate lidar adoption,” Ouster CEO Angus Pacala said. “Together, we have an even stronger team backed by a healthy balance sheet, new channel partners, and a wide selection of positive-margin products to serve a diverse set of customers and win more deals than ever before.”
The new company will trade under the existing OUST ticker. Shares of Ouster (OUST) rose over 10% in premarket trading on Monday.
Read more on the original merger proposal made in late 2022.
Someone on Yahoo was calculating the share value:
''What do I think? I think at the close of business on Friday the stock market valued Velodyne at $1.26 a share for a market cap of $300.2 million for the 238.3 million shares outstanding and valued Ouster at $1.53 a share for a market cap of $282.7 million for the 184.7 million shares outstanding. Thus, the merged company should have a combined market cap of $582.9 million at the very least, based on the market values at the close of business on Friday.
If the mechanics of the merger could have been accomplished over the weekend, each Velodyne share would have been exchanged for 0.8204 shares of Ouster, or a total issuance of new Ouster shares of 195.5 million (238.3 million times 0.8204) which when added to the existing 184.7 million Ouster shares would equal total Ouster shares outstanding of 380.2 million shares. If the combined market cap stayed at $582.9 million, the share price would be $1.53 ($582.9 million divided by 380.2 million shares). Yes, Velodyne shareholders end up with less Ouster shares, but at essentially the same value.‘’
The after-market closed at 1.45, so pretty much in the same ballpark.
I also looked at the results a bit:
Ouster: reiterated its FY 2022 revenue guidance4 of $40 million to $55 million and its gross margin target of 25% to 30%.
Velo: Demand remains robust across our entire business. We expect billings for the fourth quarter to be between $13 million and $15 million and revenue to be between $12 million and $14 million. Revenue for the first half of the year was approx. 27m, so about 40 million for 2022 in total.
If I found the right info, the total revenues are 80-95 million and net losses are around 130 million for Ouster and around 180 million for Velodyne, totaling over 300 million. Against that background, the cash position is no longer very large, but I guess we can expect those synergy benefits from here on out.
Have there been any forecasts anywhere on when a positive result might be achieved? Are we moving at all in line with the original SPAC prospectuses?
The original forecasts for these have nothing to do with the real world anymore, if they ever did. Chip availability issues pulled the rug out from under them, if nothing else. Many lidar manufacturers’ forecasts relied on growth in the ADAS sector, which also stalled almost completely over the last couple of years.
According to the companies’ comments, €75M should be shaved off the $300M total annual costs through synergies. This extends the cash runway significantly, although it is still burning at a steady pace.
The best forecast for profitability will likely be available once the annual reports and new materials are released. But the bottom line is unlikely to be positive for at least a couple of years; 2026 is probably closer.
OK, thanks, that’s pretty much what I suspected.
I also took a look at AEVA, as it had been sitting at the bottom of my portfolio for a while. Their loss rate was also around 140 million for last year. Albeit with much lower revenue. Well, I’ll continue to follow with very small stakes; there’s still plenty of time to hop on these rides if things move in the right direction.
And it’s been rough going for other SPACs as well. Personally, I’ve mostly had hydrogen stocks and SoFi, and out of those, only SoFi has progressed well. Well, that’s in terms of business development, not the share price, but I’m sure the price will follow the facts at some point.
Ouster is doing a 1:10 reverse split to maintain the Nasdaq requirement for a share price above $1.
It rarely does any favors for the valuation 
On the other hand, it enables certain funds to buy in as the stock moves out of the penny stock category.
https://seekingalpha.com/pr/19274833-ouster-to-consolidate-shares-1-forminus-10-reverse-stock-split
Ouster Q1 released May 11th.
Velodyne’s figures included from the merger from February 10, 2023, onwards.
Lots of different one-off items from products and the merger. Gross margin is negative as a result 
, although new deliveries should have a better margin structure going forward. And EPS is as low as -$6.03 due to write-downs.
First Quarter 2023 Highlights
- Over $17 million in revenue1, up 101% from $8.6 million in the first quarter of 2022.
- Booked2 $33 million in business with new and existing customers.
- Gross margins of (2%), compared to 30% in the first quarter of 2022.
- Non-GAAP gross margins of 25% in the first quarter of 2023.
- Shipped over 3,000 sensors for revenue in the first quarter, up 95% year over year.
- Net loss increased to $177 million in the first quarter of 2023 primarily due to the non-cash goodwill impairment charges of $99 million and higher operating losses associated with Velodyne merger, compared to $32 million in the first quarter of 2022.
- Adjusted EBITDA3 loss increased to $27 million, compared to a loss of $23 million in the first quarter of 2022.
- Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance of $257 million as of March 31, 2023.
investor presentation
And the call transcript
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4603480-ouster-inc-oust-q1-2023-earnings-call-transcript
Velodyne Alpha Prime™ VLS-128 sensors adopted for production use in Motional’s robotaxis. Previously in testing for a long time.
Ouster’s Q2 seems to be pleasing the market, at least initially.
Cost cuts significantly exceed previous forecasts, and revenue is also growing.
The direction is right, especially with binding orders. Of course, significantly more scale is still needed.
Compared to other players, Ouster’s order books are binding, versus for example Innoviz or Luminar, whose backlogs might materialize sometime in the future. This was also previously the case with Velodyne, but the practice was abandoned to provide something realistic and comparable to present.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4627904-ouster-drop-in-the-bucket-move
Luminar Technologies (LAZR) and Innoviz Technologies (INVZ) both provide multi-billion dollar future contract order books, but the amounts include orders for vehicles not starting production for years. Originally, Ouster and Velodyne Lidar provided such metrics suggesting a combined future contract order book topping $1 billion, but the companies pulled the metric and have started providing a quarterly bookings metric.
The bookings metric provided by Ouster is a more traditional metric of actual binding orders received in the quarter providing a more traditional book-to-bill ratio as follows:
More on cost savings and gross margin
Ouster has transitioned the Velodyne Lidar sensor production to Thailand generating 26% gross margins in Q2. The goal is to top 30% gross margins this year with even higher margins in the future. The combination of higher revenues and gross margins above 30% will help Ouster to start generating industry leading gross profits to offset spending levels
Q2 transcript
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4627204-ouster-inc-oust-q2-2023-earnings-call-transcript
Ouster exited the second quarter 2023 with record revenues of over $19 million, record bookings of $43 million, increased average selling prices of approximately $6,300 per sensor on shipments of over 3,000 sensors and a sustainable cash balance of $224 million. That, coupled with a meaningful reduction in expenditures across the business, and our cutting-edge product roadmap positions the company for long-term success and puts us on an achievable path to profitability.
New demos are also being sent to the automotive sector. If they materialize, it’s possible to achieve scale, but it’s a long road.
Our early B samples will be sampled to leading automakers in the third quarter of 2023, which is a critical milestone in our automotive roadmap and in our commercial engagements with automakers
And more on cost savings
With these cuts, we are now on track to exceed our previously announced cost savings target of $80 million to $85 million, increasing our estimate to over $110 million in annualized cost savings exiting the fourth quarter of 2023
The early-stage chaos of the Lidar market is now gradually receding, as revenue is finally starting to come in from automakers:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/18/innoviz-luminar-ouster-likely-winners-lidar-shakeout.html
Luminar’s CEO described the sector’s projected potential well in the article:
“Our target market penetration by the end of the decade is only 3% to 4%,” Russell said. “Because we think even with that, we’ll be able to achieve around $5 billion revenue and $2.5 billion EBITDA with as much as a $60 billion forward-looking order book at that point.”
Are you still long on Innoviz, @Pohjolan_Eka? Apparently, Q3 results are likely coming out on November 7th? Doubling the position at these prices is a bit tempting 
I haven’t [followed this] for a long time, but I would watch very closely to see if they land those promised new deals with automakers by the end of the year. The LiDAR market is practically being carved up among manufacturers over the next 6 months, and for the company’s sake, it would be good if they could still win a few more major deals there. Otherwise, it’ll likely be interesting to hear how the war is affecting Innoviz’s ability to ramp up production 
Ouster exceeded market expectations and its own forecasts. Significant savings have been achieved since the merger.
Notably, this brings Ouster below the pre-merger spending levels it incurred as a standalone company during the third quarter of 2022.
Solid-state lidars have likely been shipped by others as well, but this is a positive comment at the very least.
Ouster progressed on its solid-state DF product roadmap in the third quarter, including demos of its early B-samples with over a dozen OEMs and Tier 1s in Europe, North America, Korea and Japan
Over $22 million in revenue and bookings of $38 million in the third quarter 2023
Achieved over $120 million in annualized cost savings, one quarter ahead of schedule
Announced targets for revenue growth, expanding gross margins, and additional cost management
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ouster, Inc. (NYSE: OUST) (“Ouster” or the “Company”), a leading provider of high-performance lidar sensors for the automotive, industrial, robotics, and smart infrastructure industries, announced today financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 20231.
Third Quarter 2023 Highlights
- Over $22 million in revenue, up 15% quarter over quarter.
- Booked2 $38 million in business with new and existing customers, representing a book-to-bill ratio of 1.7x.
- GAAP gross margins of 14%, compared to 1% in the second quarter of 2023.
- Non-GAAP gross margins3 of 33%, compared to 26% in the second quarter of 2023.
- Shipped over 3,300 sensors for revenue in the third quarter, up 10% quarter over quarter.
- Adjusted EBITDA3 loss improved to $18 million, compared to a loss of $24 million in the second quarter of 2023.
- Net loss of $35 million in the third quarter of 2023, compared to $123 million in the second quarter of 2023.4
- Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments balance of $202 million as of September 30, 2023.
Things are also happening in the Smart Infra department
Unified the Blue City traffic management solution under the Ouster Gemini platform
New AI perception models achieves state-of-the-art detection accuracy
Booked millions of dollars in software coupled sales
Expanded software deployments to over 375 sites
Ouster bullish view, disclaimer already mentioned in the opening 
Six months have passed since I exclusively focused on Ouster (NYSE:OUST), touting it as the prime lidar choice of 2023.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4651011-ouster-sets-course-towards-profitability
Still some good points, and in terms of valuation within the sector, Ouster is undervalued if the numbers hold true. The direction has been significantly better, at least since the merger.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4651011-ouster-sets-course-towards-profitability
Sector overview from the same source
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4650366-lidar-quarterly-insights-q3-2023-update
Ouster Q1 is out. The ship seems to be turning. But there is still a lot of seawater to be pumped out before we are above water.
Cash burn is decreasing, and luckily there is still some left from the aftermath of the Velodyne and Ouster merger.
A lot depends on larger deals to ensure enough is produced and delivered to cover expenses.
First Quarter 2024 Highlights
- $26 million in revenue, up 51% year over year and 6% sequentially.
- Shipped approximately 4,500 sensors for revenue.
- GAAP gross margin of 29%, compared to (2%) in the first quarter of 2023 and 22% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
- Non-GAAP gross margin2 of 36%, compared to 25% in the first quarter of 2023 and 35% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
- Net loss of $24 million, compared to $177 million in the first quarter of 2023 and $39 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
- Adjusted EBITDA2 loss of $12 million, compared to $27 million in the first quarter of 2023 and $14 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
- Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments balance of $189 million as of March 31, 2024.
“Ouster continued its momentum into the first quarter after a strong 2023. We delivered revenue of $26 million and non-GAAP gross margin of 36%, both representing record levels. Alongside our strong operational results, we continued to advance the development of our next generation hardware products and software solutions,” said Ouster CEO Angus Pacala. “We are committed to achieving the goals we set for 2024 that aim to further extend Ouster’s competitive advantage and bring us closer to achieving profitability.”
Has @Pohjolan_Eka been following the development of Innoviz or other LIDAR manufacturers?
Luminar reported a strong Q4, exceeding expectations; revenue grew significantly and LiDAR shipments are expected to triple in 2025.
CEO Austin Russell emphasized the customer base’s transition to the Luminar Halo platform and the securing of new deals. The company is focusing on increasing production and improving cost-efficiency, aiming for, at least in its words, exponential growth.
A somewhat new topic for me. I have to marvel at the (stock price) developments of these companies. How wrong expectations were 3-4 years ago… could they be wrong now too? I know Elon doesn’t believe in LiDAR, but personally, that doesn’t faze me.
My searches turned up this company, mentioned a couple of times here: AEYE (ticker $LIDR). Confusingly, on Nasdaq there is also another company, AudioEye, whose ticker is $AEYE.. Well then. This AEYE, however, apparently focuses mainly on automotive LiDARs.
There’s really nothing left of AEYE’s old market cap. Wow!
AEYE’s LiDAR operates at a 1550nm wavelength (like Luminar’s too?)
AEYE boasts its LiDAR as a technology leader… adaptive scanning, dynamic resolution, programmable Field of View, etc., etc. a set of features that sounds great.
They claim to differentiate themselves with a solution installed behind the windshield..? NVIDIA mentioned.
One of the founders, Luis Dussan, comes from the defense technology sector (Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman), where he designed sensors, etc. The company’s management team is also quite experienced.
Q4: * Cash burn in Q4 2024 was $4.8 million, beating guidance of $4.9 million
“Beating guidance of cash burn” 
I don’t recall hearing something like that before… Well… The price isn’t breathtaking either. Market cap is $14M and EV is negative.
Recent Business Highlights
So, there are no large-scale customers yet…
There’s still a lot to dig into here; as an amateur in the field, it’s impossible to assess the competitive advantage. But the valuation has plummeted, and being relatively debt-free, it can’t be on the verge of bankruptcy either…
Near ATL, but daily double bottom, 10 and 20MA rising… who knows then…
AEYE Q1:
Cash burn excluding net financing proceeds in Q1 2025 was $8.0 million, expected to trend lower throughout 2025
GAAP net loss in Q1 2025 was (8.0) million, or (0.46) per share, based on 17.4 million weighted average common shares outstanding
Non-GAAP net loss in Q1 2025 was (5.8) million, or (0.33) per share, based on 17.4 million weighted average common shares outstanding
Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $25.9 million as of March 31, 2025
The Apollo manufacturing line at LITEON is now operational, with B-sample deliveries to automotive OEMs expected during the second quarter 2025
Reached final test stage of Apollo’s integration into NVIDIA’s DRIVE platform, positioning Apollo for widespread adoption in ADAS and autonomous driving platforms
Kurssi uusiin pohjiin. Ei salkussa, seurailen…
