28-year-old billionaire Austin Russell acquires 82% stake in Forbes

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Austin Russell, 28, chairman and CEO of automotive technology company Luminar Technologies, has acquired an 82 percent stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings, which publishes Forbes magazine, in a deal that values ​​the media house at nearly $800 million.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Russell’s stake includes the remainder of the family-owned company of the same name, which sold 95 percent of the company to Hong Kong-based integrated investor group Well Media Investments in 2014.

According to the report late Friday, the integrated Well Media company will hold a minority stake.

Russell plans to serve as a visionary for the Forbes brand and will not be involved in day-to-day operations, according to the statement.

Forbes plans to appoint a new board of directors made up of American media, technology and artificial intelligence experts. The integrated Whale company will retain one seat for the board.

Russell will not be involved in the day-to-day operations of Forbes, which was founded in 1917 by BC Forbes, and the publication plans to appoint a new board of directors with media, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) experts in the United States.

Luminar Technologies’ market capitalization is currently $2.1 billion.

Over the past decade, Luminar has built an advanced hardware and software platform to enable more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global OEMs.

From Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz for consumer vehicles and Daimler Trucks for commercial trucks, to technology partners NVIDIA and Intel’s Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable the next generation of safety and autonomy capabilities for production vehicles.

In the first quarter of 2023, Luminar said it exceeded revenue guidance and maintains a strong balance sheet to accelerate business growth and access positive cash flow.

It generated $14.5 million in revenue, up 112 percent year-over-year. Luminar expects revenue growth of at least 100 percent in 2023.

“Luminar is on all cylinders and is successfully demonstrating our ability to drive, manufacture and leverage our business. Over the past quarter, leading automakers have continued to expand our technology across their vehicle lines, betting on the future of ADAS and autonomous roadmaps in partnership with Luminar,” said Russell.

– Jans

na / shb /

(Only the title and image for this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard team; the rest of the content is generated automatically from a shared feed.)