Late-stage turmoil erupted over the sale of key businesses at U.S. automotive lidar specialist Luminar, which is in bankruptcy proceedings. As the bankruptcy judge neared approval, an unidentified bidder offered $33 million, shaking up the existing top bid. The acquisition ultimately went to MicroVision.

According to Luminar's legal team cited by tech outlet TechCrunch on Jan. 28, the bid was submitted just before the hearing. Luminar's management, legal counsel, the special transactions committee leading the bankruptcy process and the board entered emergency discussions.

Luminar's lawyer told the court the proposal was "quite a high amount, but it had flaws." Luminar ultimately selected MicroVision's $33 million bid as the winning offer at the auction, and the court approved it as scheduled.

The mystery bidder was not identified. Luminar's lawyer said the proposal came from an "insider buyer" and suggested it could be linked to the company's founder, Austin Russell (오스틴 러셀). Russell abruptly resigned as chief executive and had tried to acquire Luminar shortly before the bankruptcy. Russell AI Labs, a startup he founded, is also known to have shown interest in acquiring the lidar business. Russell's side did not issue an official statement.

The hearing proceeded as planned. The court approved a deal under which MicroVision will acquire Luminar's lidar business, and the semiconductor unit will be sold to Quantum Computing Inc. The transactions are expected to be completed within weeks, after which Luminar is expected to be fully dismantled.

MicroVision CEO Glenn DeVos (글렌 데보스) said the company plans to use Luminar's lidar technology and workforce to accelerate its entry into the automotive market. MicroVision has competitiveness in software and short-range lidar technology, but lacked long-range sensing technology for automotive use, and it sees the Luminar acquisition as a strategic turning point. "Luminar's engineering team is essential to expanding the automotive business," DeVos said. "We will restore the contracts Luminar had with existing automakers to secure new sources of revenue," he said.

The sale process also revealed another mystery bid. Luminar's lawyer and Rich Morgner (리치 모르그너), a managing director at Jefferies that oversaw the bankruptcy process, said another bidder emerged on Jan. 12 but had problems with its financing structure. The bid initially sought to raise funds from a Chinese state-owned company but replaced it with family office funds in the Cayman Islands and Europe due to regulatory issues. It ultimately fell through after failing to prove its credibility.