Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSE:7276) (KOITO) (the ?company?) announced that, at the meeting of its board of directors held on December 21, 2023, it has resolved to start negotiations with Cepton, Inc. (NasdaqCM:CPTN) (Cepton) regarding the acquisition of shares of Cepton to make Cepton a subsidiary of KOITO. KOITO and Cepton began co-development of LiDAR for automotive since 2018, completed development and preparation for mass production of medium-range LiDAR, and are currently working on development of short-range LiDAR in addition to long-range LiDAR to meet all needs for automotive, from passenger vehicles to industrial, construction, and agricultural machinery. Cepton?s proprietary Micro Motion Technology LiDAR technology, which has no sliding parts, can meet a wide range of needs in the infrastructure field, where high durability is required.

The company is working to win market share by developing and expanding sales of products such as moving object detection system the "ILLUMIERETM". As the scope of collaboration with Cepton expands in this way, the company intend to pursue synergies between Cepton?s superior technological capabilities and KOITO Group?s technologies and know-how accumulated in the automotive lighting equipment and traffic system businesses by making Cepton its subsidiary, and to further strengthen the company?s market competitiveness, including QCDD (quality, cost, supply, and development) in the LiDAR business.