The Volkswagen Group will be acquiring diconium, a service provider for the process of digital transformation. The Group had already announced the acquisition of 49 percent of the shares in diconium in November 2018. Now it will be acquiring the remaining 51 percent of the shares.
Volkswagen is strengthening its capabilities in the field of digital sales solutions. These include the development of a global online sales platform which will allow customers of all Group brands to purchase and manage digital services and on demand functions for their fully connected vehicles in the future.
diconium will be contributing its key know-how to the Car.Software organization of the Volkswagen Group, which is responsible for developing software for the vehicle, digital ecosystems and customer-oriented functions for sales across the Group brands.
Under the umbrella of the Car.Software organization, experts from diconium are developing a global online sales platform. In the future, customers of all Group brands will be able to purchase and manage digital services and on-demand functions for their fully connected vehicles via this platform. The functions will include media streaming in the car, automatic payment for refueling, battery charging and parking, as well as updates for the vehicle. In addition, the online sales platform will be linked to the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud, which is also being developed by the Car.Software organization.
Teams from Volkswagen and diconium have already been working together at Volkswagen’s new We Campus in Berlin since July 2019. At this location, Volkswagen intends to gradually bring together about 900 specialists for the development of mobility and digital services. In future, the We Campus will play a key role as a development center within the Car.Software organization.
The completion of the transaction is still subject to approval by the anti-trust authorities.
Source: Press Release
