According to a report by China Securities News on the 18th, on January 17th local time, former autonomous truck giant Tucson Future (TSP, stock price: $0.38; total market value: $87.36 million) announced its voluntary delisting of its common stock from NASDAQ and termination of its registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. On that day, its stock price plummeted by over 46%. Tucson expects its last trading day to be around February 7th in the future.
Tucson Future stated that the decision to delist and deregister is made by a specialized committee of the company's board of directors (hereinafter referred to as the "Board"), which is composed only of independent directors. The specialized committee believes that delisting and deregistration are in the best interest of the company and its shareholders when making a decision. Since Tucson's IPO in 2021, the capital market has undergone significant changes, partly due to rising interest rates and quantitative tightening, which has changed investors' sentiment towards technology growth companies before commercialization. The company's valuation and liquidity have decreased, and the volatility of its stock price has significantly increased.
Therefore, the specialized committee believes that the benefits of continuing public listing are difficult to explain the reasonableness of costs. Tucson is undergoing a transformation in the future, and the company believes that as a non listed company, it can better undergo transformation than as a listed company.
According to Interface News on December 8, 2023, a report submitted by Tucson to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the future showed that the company will lay off 150 employees in the United States, about 75% of the total number of employees in the United States and 19% of the total number of employees worldwide. This is Tucson's future personnel reduction, following the layoffs in December last year and May this year. According to The Wall Street Journal, after this layoff, Tucson will have only 30 employees in the United States and will be responsible for the closure of Tucson's future US business, gradually selling the company's assets in the US, and assisting the company in transferring to the Asia Pacific region. Therefore, this layoff means that Tucson may completely withdraw from the US market in the future.
Tucson Future official website screenshot
In May 2023, due to failure to submit financial report data on time and being warned of suspension and delisting, Tucson restructured its US business in the future, laid off 30% of its workforce, and publicly stated for the first time that the company's focus will shift towards the Asia Pacific region. In June 2023, Tucson Future announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives for its US business. If the US business is sold, Tucson's future focus will be on operating in the Asia Pacific region and other major global markets.
In June 2023, Tucson Future officially announced its entry into the Japanese market and began conducting autonomous driving tests on the Toei Expressway in Japan. In fact, in 2021, the Tucson Future Japan team has completed the system adaptation and testing verification of autonomous driving software with domestically produced Japanese trucks.
In June 2023, Tucson Future obtained the first batch of unmanned intelligent connected vehicle road test licenses in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, and completed the first fully unmanned test of autonomous driving heavy-duty trucks on public roads.
According to data, in April 2021, Tucson Future went public on NASDAQ in the United States, becoming the world's "first autonomous driving stock". At that time, it issued 33.784 million shares, raising a total of 1.35 billion US dollars. Tucson Future is an autonomous truck company co founded by Hou Xiaodi and Chen Mo in 2015. Prior to this, Tucson has conducted multiple autonomous driving tests in the United States and achieved commercial operations.
Daily Economic News Comprehensive China Securities News, Interface News
