\n<\/p>\n
Moments before a bankruptcy judge was expected to approve the sale of Luminar\u2019s lidar business, an unidentified party submitted an offer that apparently blew away the leading bid of $33 million.<\/p>\n
This bid, which emerged just before a hearing Tuesday, kicked off a series of rapid-fire meetings between Luminar\u2019s remaining leadership team and its lawyers, a \u201cspecial transaction committee\u201d formed to navigate the bankruptcy, and eventually the company\u2019s full board.<\/p>\n
While the bid was \u201csubstantially higher,\u201d there were \u201cinfirmities\u201d in the offer, according to a lawyer for Luminar. Luminar ultimately decided to stick with the $33 million bid it received from a company called MicroVision during an auction on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n The identity of who submitted this long-shot offer was not revealed, but Luminar\u2019s lawyer said it was an \u201cinsider purchaser,\u201d meaning it likely came from company founder Austin Russell.<\/p>\n Russell had already tried to buy the company<\/a> late last year before it slid into bankruptcy (and after he abruptly resigned as CEO). Representatives of his new firm Russell AI Labs previously told TechCrunch<\/a> he was interested in submitting a bid on the lidar business during the bankruptcy case. (Those same representatives did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.)<\/p>\n The hearing moved forward, and the sale to MicroVision was approved. The sale of Luminar\u2019s semiconductor division to a company called Quantum Computing Inc. was also approved. <\/p>\n The transactions are likely to close in the coming weeks, and after that, the company will cease to exist, bringing an end to one of the buzzier suppliers of the budding autonomous vehicle era.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> Russell\u2019s goal of using lidar to help cars drive themselves will continue on at MicroVision, though, according to its CEO Glen DeVos. As part of the asset sale, MicroVision will get Luminar\u2019s lidar tech as well as its remaining staff, and he said he\u2019s hopeful some of the other talent that was laid off prior to bankruptcy will come on board, too.<\/p>\n For DeVos, Luminar\u2019s lidar technology is the piece MicroVision has been missing from his company\u2019s portfolio. The Redmond, Washington-based company doesn\u2019t have the same profile as the leaders in the lidar sector like Aeva, Innoviz, Hesai, or Ouster, but that\u2019s in part because it lacked the long-range sensing capability that is crucial to automotive.<\/p>\n MicroVision has a \u201cvery strong\u201d software team, DeVos said in an interview with TechCrunch, and similarly strong short-range lidar team. But DeVos, who spent a long career at automotive suppliers Delphi and Aptiv, and took over as MicroVision CEO last year, wants to expand beyond its current markets of industrial use, security, and defense.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when we look at the Luminar engineering team, and what they\u2019ve done, we said: \u2018Hey, that\u2019s a great compliment from a from a engineering capability standpoint,\u2019\u201d Devos said. \u201cThat\u2019s critical in this area in terms of trying to win automotive business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat MicroVision wants<\/h2>\n