Detectors & Imaging

Intel invests $24.8M in Vuzix smartglass technology

Jan. 6, 2015

Video eyewear and smartglass technology products company Vuzix Corporation announced that Intel Corporation made a $24.8 million investment into the Company.

Gail Overton

Smart glasses promise fashionable, informative displays.

Video eyewear and smartglass technology products company Vuzix Corporation (Rochester, NY) announced that Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA) made a $24.8 million investment into the Company. Vuzix wearable display technology is focused on next generation-optics and displays that have the potential to fit in fashion-based wearable glasses. Intel's investment will be used for general working capital to accelerate the introduction of Vuzix next-generation fashion-based wearable display products into the consumer market.

Intel purchased 49,626 of Vuzix' Series A Preferred Stock, which are convertible into 4,962,600 shares of Vuzix' common stock at an initial conversion price of $5.00 per share, subject to adjustment in the event of stock splits, dividends or other combinations. The shares issuable upon conversion of the Series A Preferred Stock represent approximately 30 percent of Vuzix total outstanding stock, assuming full conversion of the Series A Preferred Stock. As holders of Series A Preferred Stock, Intel has the right to vote with the holders of Common Stock on an as-converted basis, and has the right to appoint two members to Vuzix' Board of Directors, in addition to the Company's current five members.

Vuzix products include personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high-quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays and virtual and augmented reality. Vuzix holds 39 patents and 10 additional patents pending and numerous IP licenses in the Video Eyewear field. The Company has won Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation for the years 2005 to 2014 and several wireless technology innovation awards, among others. Founded in 1997, Vuzix is a public company with offices in Rochester, NY, Oxford, England, and Tokyo, Japan.

SOURCE: Vuzix; www.vuzix.com

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.