Nokia Buys Map Company For US$8 Billion

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 02 October 2007

After revamping it location-based services last month, Nokia has taken another step to increase its arsenal in the new frontier made possible with GPS enabled mobile phones announcing it has struck an agreement to purchase Chicago-based NAVTEQ for a staggering US$8.1 billion. Not that the acquisition is entirely speculative, after discounting the cash NAVTEQ has on hand, Nokia will only be out of pocket US$7.7 billion and it does not expect the outlay to have any significant impact on its earnings for the current financial year. In fact Nokia expects the deal to be profitable for it by the next fiscal year. NAVTEQ is already a profitable company, highly profitable with revenues of more than half a billion US per annum thanks to its map data and navigation content deals it already has in place with large navigation players. Nokia says NAVTEQ provides comprehensive digital map information for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. It also has a toe in the content services business itself with www. traffic.com a web and interactive service that provides traffic information and content to consumers. Nokia says the acquisition brings a number of key assets to Nokia: a great team with best-in-world maps and navigation industry expertise, a strong customer base and an industry-leading map data and technology platform with the broadest geographical coverage. Founded in 1985, generated 2006 revenues of $582 million and has approximately 3,000 employees located in 168 offices in 30 countries. Nokia will use the company to strengthen its location based services offering and allow it to speed up delivery of other "context aware" Internet services. "Location based services are one of the cornerstones of Nokia's Internet services strategy. The acquisition of NAVTEQ is another step toward Nokia becoming a leading player in this space," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President and CEO, Nokia. "By joining forces with NAVTEQ, we will be able to bring context and geographical information to a number of our Internet services with accelerated time to market. We also look forward to maintaining and enhancing the services and support provided to NAVTEQ's existing and future customers". "Nokia's unique vision for location based services aligns perfectly with NAVTEQ's vision to enable everyone to find their way to people, places and opportunities on mobile communications devices, cars, desktop computers and in all the other places that are important to them," said NAVTEQ President and CEO Judson Green. "It's really exciting to imagine what we can achieve by combining our location experience with the resources of a company that has a customer base of more than 900 million people." The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. Related news items Tiny Rugged UMPC WIth Vista -10/10/2007 Consumers Want FMC: Companies Don't See The Benefit -02/10/2007 Seven In Unwired Takeover Bid -26/09/2007 Ultra-Mobile Sales Ready To Rocket -16/09/2007 Palm Goes Consumer With Treo 500v -12/09/2007 Newer news items Nokia Finds There's Money In Maps -12/02/2008 Six Month Wait For Garmin nüvifone -03/02/2008 Google FInds Mobiles Without GPS -28/11/2007 Garmin Does Phone Nav -04/10/2007 Older news items Australia's First Free Mobile Navigation Service -13/09/2007 ASUS A686/696 GPS PDA -23/08/2007 GPS Satellite Cooperation -30/07/2007 Nokia Finds A Faster GPS Solution -19/07/2007 Location Services Finding Their Place -04/04/2007 Tag This Now: