Gawker: valleywag, navteq

skwash

Owen Thomas — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:40:00 EDT

In a post about Google's agricultural-mapping expeditions, commenter skwash suggests that Google's snapping shots of business-free rural roads so it can create its own geographical database, shutting out map providers TeleAtlas and Nokia's Navteq:

You have to consider the fact that Google has to pay to license all of their street data from NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas. By essentially photographing the view from the street, Google has access to nearly everything they need to re-create the data set. Street names, mileposts, exit numbers, etc can all be pulled from the images. Combine this with their recently announced Map Maker and Google has their own data set with accuracy as good or better than their current sources, and they don't have to pay ridiculous licensing fees. This doesn't even account for the fact that Google is striking deals with local government to publish geo data as well, or that Google is using Street View cars to collect 3D data on buildings.)

Eurocrats to review Nokia's Navteq deal

Jordan Golson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:00:00 EDT

The EU will review Nokia's $8.1 billion buyout of digital mapmaker Navteq. The Commission believes the deal could hurt competition. Navteq only has one large rival, Tele Atlas, which is being acquired by GPS maker TomTom. The EU is already examining that transaction. [FT]

Garmin offers $3.3 billion for Tele Atlas

Jordan Golson — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:02:59 EDT

GPS device maker Garmin has offered $3.3 billion for digital mapping service Tele Atlas. Rival TomTom offered $2.5 billion for Tele Atlas in an earlier bid. Currently, Garmin uses maps from Navteq. After that company was acquired by Nokia, Garmin started looking for other options. With $1 billion in cash, Garmin would finance the acquisition through cash and loans from several banks. What's this all mean? With Navteq off the market, expect something of a bidding war for Tele Atlas between Garmin and TomTom — and maybe Google. Garmin has an advantage here, though — it already purchased 5 percent of Tele Atlas on the open market. Shares in Garmin fell 11 percent after the bid was announced as investors worried that the purchase price could rise significantly. (Photo by AP/Reed Hoffmann)

Motorola CEO finds software confusing, dull

Owen Thomas — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:44:59 EDT

Motorola CEO Ed Zander claimed that his company considered buying Navteq, the mapping-services company rival Nokia snapped up last week, but decided to pass. "We are not in the applications business," said Zander. Right. That explains, of course, why Motorola bought Good Technology, an email software company, last year. We have another theory: Bitches just jealous.

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia is buying...

Jordan Golson — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:17:28 EDT

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia is buying Navteq for $8.1 billion. The company's mapping service powers Google Maps, among others — including the Google Maps application for Apple's iPhone, a competitor to Nokia's handsets. (That's an exceedingly roundabout attack on a rival, but it's so obscure it just may work.) Nokia also says it will provide many more phones with GPS capabilities in 2008. [GigaOM]