Ousted Luminar CEO Austin Russell wants to buy the company

Its founder is billionaire Austin Russell shineFive months later Leader made a bid to acquire Maker Replaced as CEO An ethical inquiry follows.

A takeover attempt has been revealed SEC Filing by Russell Friday morning. Its new company, Russell AI Labs, will purchase 100% of the outstanding shares of Luminar’s Class A common stock for an undisclosed price.

If that happens, Luminar will be publicly traded, and Russell AI Labs “could acquire a different, larger global automotive technology company” and merge it with Luminar “to create a unified technology platform business (‘Luminar 2.0’),” according to the filing. Then Russell can also invest in the new joint venture.

The proposal was made Oct. 14, “at the suggestion of certain shareholders” of Luminar and “at the invitation of certain members of the board” — though the filing did not name them. Some of those board members approached Russell about the idea in September, according to a source familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak about them. Luminar and Russell AI Labs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The proposed acquisition is therefore sudden and surprising Russell’s replacement in May. Luminar announced Russell’s resignation on May 19, the same day the company reported its first-quarter earnings. The company tapped former Xerox executive Paul Ricci.

The company did not offer any details on why Russell was ousted, saying the board’s audit committee had conducted a “code of business conduct and ethics investigation.” Lumina has yet to explain what that investigation found. has been case by shareholders multiple times Move on and the way it has been revealed.

That said, Russell is no stranger to takeover attempts. In 2023, he launched A bid to buy Forbes. But it ultimately failed after the acquisition was not pursued by some investors. The bid process was also marred by a Alleged connections to a Russian oligarch.

Russell remained on Luminar’s board and was to be “available to the incoming CEO for transition and technology issues.” But he has been absent in at least one way since being replaced, failing to sign any of the company’s filings (in his capacity as a board member) with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Meanwhile, Russell co-founded the Russell AI Lab in September with Mercedes-Benz Group AG CTO and board member Markus Schafer and former SoftBank Vision Fund partner Murtaza Ahmed. The new company claims it “supports and builds transformative AI and frontier technology companies” and has already taken a $300 million stake in agentic AI company Emergence.

This story has been updated with new information in the fourth paragraph Lumina’s board members approach Russell.