Last year it was announced that Samsung would be acquiring Harman in a bid to expand their connected car efforts (and presumably audio efforts too). However it was later suggested that the acquisition’s completion might be hindered as some Harman shareholders believe that they aren’t getting their money’s worth.
It looks like that has finally happened as a group of the company’s shareholders have filed a class-action fiduciary duty lawsuit against Harman’s CEO Dinesh Paliwal and the company’s board members, claiming that the deal was “flawed and undervalued”. They have also announced their objection to the terms and conditions of the contract where Harman agreed to not consider other potential bidders other than Samsung.
Harman is expected to be holding a shareholder’s meeting in the first quarter of 2017 to decide on the matter, but for now Samsung is planning to push ahead with their plans as previously stated. The company had actually expected the acquisition to be completed sooner, but with this impending lawsuit it seems that things could be delayed.
There have been rumors that Samsung was planning on incorporating Harman’s audio technology into its mobile devices, but so far it doesn’t seem like those rumors might come true, but we guess we’ll just have to wait and see.