Bidding intensifies for Nokia's Here maps as Uber offers $3B
Whether or not Apple is still in the running to buy Nokia's Here, the digital mapping service will likely sell for more than $3 billion thanks to a bid made by transportation service Uber.
Uber has officially submitted its $3 billion offer for Nokia Here, sources familiar with the process reportedly indicated to The New York Times. The bid from Uber is said to be competing with one from a consortium made up of BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Baidu.
Not mentioned in the story is whether Apple is in the running. It was reported last month that Nokia was courting Apple in an effort to earn $3.2 billion for the sale of Here.
If Apple were to buy Nokia's Here for that asking price, it would be the largest acquisition in the company's history, eclipsing the $3 billion it spent on Beats last year.
The Here maps business has been a bright spot for Nokia as the company has struggled during its attempts to restructure as a networking company. Last quarter, the Here mapping division saw its profits increase by 20 percent to 162 million euros.
Others said to have shown interest in Nokia Here are Facebook and Microsoft. The Nokia maps business has more than 80 percent market share among vehicle built-in navigation systems.
Uber has officially submitted its $3 billion offer for Nokia Here, sources familiar with the process reportedly indicated to The New York Times. The bid from Uber is said to be competing with one from a consortium made up of BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Baidu.
Not mentioned in the story is whether Apple is in the running. It was reported last month that Nokia was courting Apple in an effort to earn $3.2 billion for the sale of Here.
If Apple were to buy Nokia's Here for that asking price, it would be the largest acquisition in the company's history, eclipsing the $3 billion it spent on Beats last year.
The Here maps business has been a bright spot for Nokia as the company has struggled during its attempts to restructure as a networking company. Last quarter, the Here mapping division saw its profits increase by 20 percent to 162 million euros.
Others said to have shown interest in Nokia Here are Facebook and Microsoft. The Nokia maps business has more than 80 percent market share among vehicle built-in navigation systems.
Comments
The original article mentioned that a business consortium of European car manufacturers also really wants it because they see autonomous cars on the horizon and Nokia's 3D high resolution maps are seen as absolutely required and they don't want it to fall into the hands of a single company that might block them from using it. If Apple does not bid on this it might be seen as a signal that they are not building an autonomous self driving auto.
wtf.
Uber doesn't even have $3 billion
They could borrow the money, or partner with some other entity. Nokia has also indicated that they might want to remain a partial stakeholder in their maps business. Also Uber is expected to have their IPO this year.
Excerpt From Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navteq
On 1 October, 2007, it was announced that Nokia would acquire NAVTEQ in a deal valued at an estimated US$8.1 billion (%u20AC5.7 billion). NAVTEQ shareholders approved the deal in December 2007. The European Commission in July 2008 ruled the deal did not violate antitrust rules clearing the way for closing the deal.
I wonder if Apple is interested in combining their Maps effort with HERE Maps. I would imagine it being an engineering nightmare to do so.
I'm not sure that the cost of collecting an equivalent set of data would amount to $3 billion, but a potential buyer will win calendar time over collecting it themselves. And, as mentioned in a previous comment, it would be a considerable disruption to some current customers of Here if Apple or some other actor intent on using the data in their own solutions without reselling it were to acquire Here. Both these should be factors in driving up the price of Here.
Back when rumors held that Apple were to use TeleAtlas data in its mapping effort I got really worried that they didn't realize what they were up for. As we all know, they didn't (bye, bye Forstall...). When I worked with developing web based mapping solutions in the pre-Google Maps era, we originally used data from TeleAtlas, but opted to switch to NAVTEQ around 2004, since our analysis showed that the quality of NAVTEQ data was higher, at least here in Europe. That said, it didn't take long until the data quality of Google Maps was way higher than both the mentioned alternatives (bye, bye selling web based mapping solutions in competition with Google...).
So, when Apple decided to go with TeleAtlas, they were set up for considerable headwind. I wonder how much money they have had to pour into improvement of the Apple Maps data quality since launch. By now Apple should know the mapping business well enough to use a realistic valuation if they will be bidding on Here.
Rumour has it that Apple will be implementing public transit shortly, so the only outstanding feature would be some kind of StreetView.
Does HERE have street views? If not, I'm not so sure it's worth 3 billion.
Let them have it. Not worth that much to Apple.
Navteq, which is part of HERE, has huge value to someone like Apple. They're one of only two organizations to offer complete navigable digital maps of North America and Europe.
They could borrow the money, or partner with some other entity. Nokia has also indicated that they might want to remain a partial stakeholder in their maps business. Also Uber is expected to have their IPO this year.
So, they may never have the money...
On the other hand, if Apple was remotely interested in bidding for this they could send a planeload of cash. Maybe $1 billion in cash instead of a promise would be well received.
Apple's improvement on their own map is going too slow! They need better data.
Apple's probably doing as much as they are can at this point, but since alternatives such as Google and others are still available on iOS, it isn't critical that they act out of panic and overbid for a service that would represent an all-new Herculean effort to integrate into Apple Maps. Software doesn't write itself and throwing more programmers at the problem may not solve anything.
Apple needs better raw data and Here has that. They also have a lot of talent.
I think Apple is already far along with it's own Maps initiative and I am not sure how the Nokia Here Cloud model would fit into Apple's existing infrastructure and Strategy. Perhaps they can partner with one of the consortiums and get a perpetual license for raw map data.
Time will tell.
wtf.
Uber doesn't even have $3 billion
Google is an investor in Über. And, if I remember correctly there were rumors a few months ago that Google was interested in purchasing Über. Maybe the DOJ and FTC should put the companies on notice that Google Maps has to be sold if Über buy Here from Nokia then Google buys Über.
By owning Here Maps Apple would prevent others from not using Apple Maps. I guess. But it is a high price to pay simply to prevent a product's growth and use (and not very ?-esque), Apple would probably be much better off investing 3 billion+ into ?Maps.
I am guessing the US DOJ and FTC and EU Commission would vote to prevent Apple from buying Here since competition in mapping services would be decreased.
It's a shill bid from Uber, if Apple ends up buying they get a commission.