Saudi Aramco Buys 7.4% Stake in Norwegian Software Firm Cognite

The logo of Saudi Aramco is pictured outside Khurais, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. (Reuters)
The logo of Saudi Aramco is pictured outside Khurais, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. (Reuters)
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Saudi Aramco Buys 7.4% Stake in Norwegian Software Firm Cognite

The logo of Saudi Aramco is pictured outside Khurais, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. (Reuters)
The logo of Saudi Aramco is pictured outside Khurais, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. (Reuters)

Saudi Aramco has bought a 7.4% stake in Norwegian industrial software group Cognite from oil firm Aker BP, Cognite said on Wednesday.

The price for the stake was "around 1 billion Norwegian crowns," or about $113 million, an Aker BP spokesperson told Reuters, valuing Cognite at just over $1.5 billion.

Cognite and Saudi Aramco are in a partnership to provide digitization services in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East region.

"Cognite has proven that their technology delivers complex real time insights seamlessly and is optimizing how energy is being supplied to the world," Saudi Aramco Senior Vice President Ahmad A. Al-Sa'adi said in a statement.

Both Cognite and Aker BP are part of Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke's group of companies, whose investment firm Aker ASA has a 50.5% stake in Cognite.

US venture capital firm Accel holds 12.4% while Cognite's Chief Executive John Markus Lervik owns 7.2%, an Aker spokesman said in May last year.



US Excludes Smartphones, Computers from Trump’s Reciprocal Tariffs

Apple iPhone 16 are on display during the launch September 20, 2024, at the Apple Store in New York. (AFP)
Apple iPhone 16 are on display during the launch September 20, 2024, at the Apple Store in New York. (AFP)
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US Excludes Smartphones, Computers from Trump’s Reciprocal Tariffs

Apple iPhone 16 are on display during the launch September 20, 2024, at the Apple Store in New York. (AFP)
Apple iPhone 16 are on display during the launch September 20, 2024, at the Apple Store in New York. (AFP)

The Trump administration has granted tariff exclusions for smartphones, computers and other electronics imports supplied largely by China, sparing them from much of President Donald Trump's steep 125% duties.

In a notice to shippers, the US Customs and Border Protection agency published a list of tariff codes that will be excluded from the duties. The exclusions are retroactively to 12:01 a.m. on April 5.

The US CBP listed 20 product categories, including the very broad 8471 code for all computers, laptops and disc drives and automatic data processing. It also included semiconductor devices, equipment, memory chips and flat panel displays.

The notice did not provide an explanation for the Trump administration's move, but the late-night exclusion provides welcome relief to major US technology firms, including Apple Dell Technologies and countless other importers.

The move represents another step back from Trump's maximalist tariff approach, including several escalations of his duties on Chinese goods.