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Nokia Buys Navteq for $8.1 Billion

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the better-to-track-you-with-my-dear dept.

mytrip writes to mention that Nokia has agreed to buy Navteq, Chicago-based maker of digital mapping and navigational software, for $8.1 billion. "Nokia's president and chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, said that location-based services were a cornerstone of Nokia's Internet services strategy, which is part of an overall plan to expand beyond the production of cellphones into user services like photos, video, music and games."

3 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. The press release, Tele Atlas and more by Lord+Satri · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's the official press release. There's additional articles on Bloomberg and TradingMarkets.

    This news was predicted after TomTom bought Tele Atlas last July, NAVTEQ's main competitor.

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    Animoog.org
  2. Re:Google Maps et al affected? by 2ms · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google acquiring Nokia? That's a laughable notion at best. Nokia is the largest wireless network hardware and phone company in the world. Some would say they're sitting on top of the biggest goldmine there is in tech or least consumer electronics. And they only seem to big extending the gap with their competitors more and more (look at Motorola's last quarter vs Nokia's). For Americans here who don't know, by the way, Nokia is far and away the largest builder of the networks wireless services are provided by -- phones are only the smaller part of their business, yet they are the largest phone maker in the world too.

  3. Re:Internet tablets by costas · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have an N95 and just used it recently to live in a strange city for two days. Yes, it's a killer app; having the navigation device on you (instead of the car) means you can make impromptu plans work ("I'd like a coffee; wonder where the nearest cafe is; oh, 5 mins away, no prob"). Having Google on the same device just plain rocks.

    Now, it's not perfect: GPS drains the battery down something fierce (which is not great to begin with) and Nokia could have done a better job interfacing GPS to the rest of the phone (why can I cut and paste a full address to search in the Maps app? instead I have to break down things to street number, street name, city and zip; why? the N95 is powerful enough to guess that format by itself...). Still though, the concept is compelling; Nokia has the right idea.