Xiaomi and Ninebot had an important press conference a few hours ago. In the press event, the company revealed that Ninebot, the Chinese two wheeled electric vehicle maker has fully acquired Segway PT, its famous competitor in US. Segway’s two wheeled electric personal vehicle are quite popular all around the world. So, this makes an important acquisition for the Chinese company Ninebot.
However, Ninebot had some help from Xiaomi. The company reportedly invested around $80 million in Ninebot recently, which could have helped the purchase. However, how much of that money went into the purchase has not yet been revealed. This acquisition also provides both the companies with international patents and IP rights to release and market its products worldwide. Interestingly, the company had accused Ninebot of IP rights infringement a few months back.
With this additional patents, Ninebot can even start charge patents to similar product manufacturers in China. However, the company revealed nothing about its own or Segway’s future plans at the event.
Industry sources say that since this is a full acquisition of Segway, Ninebot could have paid as much as $1 Billion USD for the deal. But, there’s still no official word on the details of the deal.
