Velodyne Lidar stock continued to skyrocket early Tuesday after a regulatory filing Monday night showed a wholly owned Amazon subsidiary has received warrants to purchase nearly 40 million Velodyne shares.
Velodyne, based in San Jose, Calif., makes lidar sensors, a key technology enabling self-driving or autonomous cars to "see" the world around them. Lidar stands for light detection and ranging.
The deal's warrant shares will vest over time, based on discretionary payments to Velodyne by Amazon as part of an existing commercial agreement between the parties. The arrangement is worth up to $200 million, the 8-K filing showed.
According to the terms, Amazon will be able to appoint an observer to the lidar maker's board once its holdings exceed 12.3 million shares. The e-commerce giant could acquire up to 39,594,032 Velodyne shares.
The warrant agreement follows Amazon's purchase of Zoox, an autonomous vehicle startup, in 2020 for an estimated $1.3 billion.
Velodyne Lidar Stock, Lidar Stocks
Velodyne Lidar stock soared 20% to 4.53 at the open, after spiking more than 90% at one point Monday night. That follows an 0.8% drop during Monday's stock market trading. Among other lidar stocks, VLDR stock plunged in the last year, amid a broad rout for EV and AV stocks. AEye popped 5.4%. Luminar rose 1.4% in premarket trade. Ouster climbed 4.5% and Aeva advanced 1.9%.
Amazon stock edged lower early Tuesday.
Driverless autonomous vehicles could bring down the cost of moving goods and people. E-commerce giant Amazon is building out a delivery and logistics business.
Find Aparna Narayanan on Twitter at @IBD_Aparna.
