Volkswagen will buy over Volvo's WirelessCar, a Stockholm-based digital service developer, specializing in connected driving.

The deal, which still has to be approved by cartel authorities, would make VW a 75-percent shareholder in WirelessCar, the company said on Wednesday. The sales price amounts to SEK 1.1 billion ($122 million).

WirelessCar has a workforce of some 370 IT experts worldwide and is acknowledged as a leading specialist in vehicle connectivity. WirelessCar has its own technology platform and also develops digital services, including concierge and billing services (e.g. tolls) as well as safety and emergency services (e.g. remote diagnostics, breakdown services). Worldwide, some 3.5 million vehicles from various car manufacturers are connected via this platform.

The Volkswagen Group is using WirelessCar's connectivity technology to drive the development of the digital ecosystem, where the Volkswagen brand is spearheading development for the Group in cooperation with technology partners. The goal is to provide full connectivity in future vehicle generations and develop value-added services for customers that they can access via the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud. WirelessCar joins Microsoft and diconium as VW's third major technology partner involved.

Volkswagen is developing the cloud-based platform together with Microsoft, and designing a customizable marketing platform (service platform) for all digital services with diconium. More specifically, WirelessCar technology will enable safe and stable data exchange between the vehicle’s operating system and the cloud-based platform, and forming an essential basis for the future software architecture in the vehicle (Device Platform).

The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2019, it added.