Zero to Sixty in Mere Seconds and Always Connected; company spotlight on QualiSystems; and select January 2015 tech M&A deals.

Google’s announcement earlier this year about having an “autonomous” (or driverless) car on the road within five years caused whiplash for many auto industry executives. Yet, relatively little has been said about the challenges of managing the growing complexity of technology in cars…a problem that will only snowball in the years ahead. Even today, the average high-end car has roughly seven times more code than a Boeing 787 (meaning… LOTS of things can go wrong!). Last month, Harman Industries announced two major acquisitions to accelerate its vision of supporting the connected car. Spending nearly a billion dollars (assuming the earn-outs are achieved) to acquire Symphony Teleca and Red Bend Software, Harman announced these investments in software and services to address the rapidly evolving area of Internet of Things (“IoT”), fully endorsing the notion that one’s connected car will be part of a consumer’s broader connected lifestyle and an increasingly interconnected and networked world. For more information, contact JEGI’s Co-Heads of Technology Banking Jeff Becker and Joseph Sanborn at jeffb@jegi.com andjosephs@jegi.com.

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