Nokia agreed to acquire NAVTEQ, positioning itself to play a leading role in mobile location-based services. Under the deal, Nokia will pay $78 in cash for each share of NAVTEQ including outstanding options for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $8.1 billion (EUR 5.7 billion), or approximately $7.7 billion (EUR 5.4 billion) net of NAVTEQ existing cash balance. Nokia said this represents a 34% premium over NAVTEQ's trading price a year ago.
NAVTEQ brings a number of key assets to Nokia: maps and navigation industry expertise, an existing customer base and a map data and technology platform with broad geographical coverage. The company is a leading provider of comprehensive digital map information for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. NAVTEQ also owns Traffic.com, a web and interactive service that provides traffic information and content to consumers.
NAVTEQ generated 2006 revenues of $582 million and has approximately 3,000 employees located in 168 offices in 30 countries. The company is based in Chicago and was founded in 1985.
"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.
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- In August 2007, Nokia introduced "Ovi", its new Internet services brand name for mobile devices. Ovi, meaning "door" in Finnish, will be Nokia's portal enabling consumers to access its gaming and music store services. Also under the Ovi umbrella is Nokia Maps, the company's navigation service, as well as future Internet-based services the coming plans to introduce in the coming months. The English language version of Ovi is expected to debut in Q4.
