In an unusual development, a well-established company with a history of half a century was acquired early last month by a 2-year-old small start-up.

Normally well-established companies acquire smaller firms, not the other way around. However, in this case, the start-up Eva Automation -- with a staff of 50 people in Silicon Valley -- took over the British audio company Bowers & Wilkins that has 1,100 employees.

Eva Automation is a specialized audio and video systems firm that is yet to release any products in the market.

Founded in 2014 with an initial investment of $200 million from various investors including Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, most of its employees have worked at Apple and Motorola, and the company CEO is Korean-American Gideon Yu. 

Born in Seoul in 1971, Yu graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and engineering management followed by an MBA from Harvard.

With experience as the chief financial officer of Facebook and YouTube, Yu was also the treasurer and senior vice president of finance at Yahoo as well as a general partner and outside board member of Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm.

Moreover, he is known to be the co-owner and former president of the San Francisco 49ers football team -- the first president of color of any teams in the National Football League.

His current net worth is estimated at $500 million.

Despite Eva Automation’s lack of products in the market, industry insiders speculate that the start-up acquired B&W to create a synergy effect -- by combining the British firm’s high-end audio technology with its own multimedia technology.

About the recent move, Yu revealed on his Twitter account, “This acquisition combines B&W’s incredible brand and unmatched quality products with our amazing team, technologies and product vision.”

Founded in 1966, B&W is known in the audio industry for its high-end products. It provided audio systems for the BMW 7 series and amplifiers for audio manufacturers Classé and Rotel. Its flagship luxury loudspeaker Nautilus is sold at $60,000.

The two companies are now combined under the name Bowers & Wilkins with Gideon Yu as the executive chairman and B&W CEO Joe Atkins remaining as chief executive. It is further reported that Atkins, who owned a 60 percent stake in B&W, will continue to own a generous portion of the combined company shares.

Although the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, some reports indicate that B&W was acquired for $175 million.

Among the companies who raised funds to seal the deal, Formation Group was the lead investor.

In 2012, third-generation chaebol owner of LS Group Koo Bon-woong cofounded investment firm Formation 8, known for its high-profile investments, and later launched Formation Group late last year.

Formation 8 invested $12.5 million in virtual reality technology company Oculus VR, which was acquired by Facebook in March 2014, increasing its investment profits by tenfold, amounting to $130 million. 

Gideon Yu is currently a senior advisor at fellow Stanford alumni Koo’s Formation Group. 

By The Korea Herald Superrich Team (seoyounglee@heraldcorp.com)
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Hong Seung-wan
Cheon Ye-seon
Seo Jee-yeon
Yoon Hyun-jong
Min Sang-seek
Lee Seo-young