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Velodyne to Become Publicly Traded in Reverse Merger With Graf Industrial

Velodyne and Graf Industrial, a blank check company, agreed to move Velodyne into Graf as a subsidiary, they said Thursday. The transaction is being structured as a reverse merger where existing Velodyne shareholders will own the majority, blogged Velodyne Lidar…

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Thursday. Current Velodyne shareholders, including Velodyne founder David Hall and investors Ford, Baidu, Nikon and Hyundai, will retain ownership of more than 80%. Implied market capitalization is expected to be about $1.8 billion. Hall will be executive chairman. Management will include CEO Anand Gopalan, Chief Financial Officer Drew Hamer and Chief Marketing Officer Marta Hall. The transaction will be funded with a $150 million committed private investment in public equity and is expected to leave Velodyne with about $200 million cash. The transaction is expected to close in Q3. Graf will be renamed Velodyne Lidar and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under VLDR.