DLA Piper advises HARMAN on the acquisition of Mixed Reality Pioneer Apostera

DLA Piper has advised HARMAN International, the leading supplier of connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, on the acquisition of Apostera, a Germany-based automotive technology company. Apostera’s employees will join HARMAN as part of the company's Automotive division.

Apostera’s augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) software solutions will expand HARMAN’s automotive product offerings and position the company at the forefront of automotive AR/MR experience design.

Apostera’s mixed reality solution combines Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, and sensor fusion in a hardware-agnostic software platform. Combined with HARMAN’s digital cockpit product portfolio, these new software solutions will bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds.

HARMAN designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and services supporting the Internet of Things. More than 50 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 30,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

The DLA Piper team was jointly led by partner Gerald Schumann and senior associate Hanna Lütkens (both Corporate/M&A, Munich) and also included HARMAN's international co-client relationship partners at DLA Piper, Dr Thilo von Bodungen (Commercial, Munich) and Richard Fens (Corporate, Amsterdam). In addition, the DLA team consisted of partners Dr Jan Geert Meents (IPT), Pascal Kremp (Employment, both Munich), Semin O (Antitrust, Frankfurt) and Steffen Kaufmann (Corporate, Moscow), counsels Dr Christoph Dachner (Corporate/M&A, Munich) and Miray Kavruk (IPT, Frankfurt), senior associate Dr Felisa Frey (Employment) as well as associates Betina Fischer (Commercial), Ekaterina Filikhina and Lucas Blum (both IPT, all Munich).

Furthermore, a team in Ukraine from law firm Kinstellar led by Anastasiya Bolkhovitinova cooperated with DLA Piper on this project.