Nokia to acquire Navteq for $8.1 Billion

[Rafe]

In what is one of the most significant technology acquisitions of the year Nokia has announced it is to acquire Navteq for $8.1 billion. Navteq is the leading provider of digital map information which is used in car navigation systems (e.g. BMW), mobile navigation devices (e.g. Garmin), Internet-based mapping applications (e.g. Google Maps), and government and business solutions. Nokia uses Navteq data in its own Nokia Maps product.

Read on in the full article.

[krisse]

8 billion dollars! Good grief, this is huge news. This more than anything else shows Nokia is serious about becoming a services company rather than just a hardware company.

[tatoo1000]

I foresee new GPS chpsets in future Nokia phones!!!

[viipottaja]

Yep, that's freaking huge!! Will be interesting to see how the Nokia stock price will react..

Nokia is really getting very serious about services, but also about mobilITY, not just mobilE.

[krisse]

It's funny, one of the iPhone demos was of viewing Google Maps... well that's now technically a Nokia service.

This brings up the dilemma Nokia is going to face in the future, what will they do when it comes to choosing between providing their services only for Nokia devices or non-Nokia as well?

It may not be that big a problem, Apple make computers but they provide iTunes software for non-Apple computers too, and Microsoft provides services for non-MS operating systems.

What it definitely means though is that Nokia won't have to go far to find services for its own devices, it will be able to provide most of the key ones itself. It now has maps and games with music soon to follow.

[Bobagent]

Mmm I doubt very much if they've just splurged 8Bn they would make it a Nokia only service as they would lose all the revenue from Navteq's current customers.
Looking @ their Intellisync model I'm sure they'll be quite open about supporting different platforms.

[krisse]

"Mmm I doubt very much if they've just splurged 8Bn they would make it a Nokia only service as they would lose all the revenue from Navteq's current customers."

I agree, and I don't think Nokia is doing this just as a way to promote their own devices.

If you read between the lines, Nokia seem to want to diversify, to make more than just phones. Selling their online services across all major platforms would make the most sense if they want to be taken seriously as an online service company, and if they want to be less dependent on phone sales.

Phone sales aren't going to go away tomorrow, but it's conceivable that in 20 or 30 years time we won't really pay attention to which brand of mobile phone we have, we'll just buy cheap generic mobiles the same way most of us buy cheap generic PCs now. Phone makers have to make sure they have something else to turn to when that happens.

[Rafe]

Its worth realising that although they paid a lot more than last years earnings the company has shown significant growth this year and I can only see that going up. I would imagine this is likely to be one of the fasest growing bits of Nokia in the near future (and $8bn may look like good value).

I also think its acase of Nokia wanting to have full control over what is likely to be a very important part if the future. GPS / mapping stuff is on the rise and will become as ubiqutous as camera phones... of course mapping actually has many more uses than a camera in some ways.

With phones having gps I wonder if the shots taken with those cameras soon contribute to the maps. I mean there have been several different types of impressive demos of how photos can be used to create some maps and stuff when they come with some location data.... I have no idea where folks at Nokia see all this is going to go but it seems maps will get more impressive and there are more and more services that could include maps. And even if there is no dramatic change to that direction (I bet there will), it looks like a reasonable deal. Starts to feel like a bargain imo..

It's astonishing how Nokia always manages to be one step ahead. "...skate to where the puck is <em>going to be</em>..."