What happened
Niche auto tech company TuSimple (TSP) might be putting itself on the block. The dreaded "strategic alternatives" (such as a sale) it's contemplating usually worry investors. Surely enough, the company's share price cratered on the news, plummeting by nearly 10% on a day when the S&P 500 index ended 1.2% higher.
So what
After market hours Thursday, TuSimple broke the news that it is "evaluating strategic alternatives" for its U.S. operations, as it wrote in a press release. It said this has the unanimous support of its board of directors, adding that it has retained veteran financial services firm Perella Weinberg Partners as a financial advisor to explore potential deals for the unit.
TuSimple said that its aim was "to maximize shareholder value."
The company is active both in its native U.S. and in the vast Asia-Pacific market. It said that these operations have their own, stand-alone engineering teams. They also boast their own software code bases and infrastructure.
TuSimple is a very ambitious company, with the stated goal of developing and rolling out fully autonomous freight truck operations.
Now what
We might not know for some time if TuSimple's efforts are successful. The company warned in boilerplate language that it might not succeed in finding one of those "alternatives" that would divest the U.S. operations or result in a strategy change. It added that it doesn't intend to issue any more public commentary until its board has approved a deal or, failing that, finalized a review of said alternatives.
