Nolia announced they are acquiring digital map company NavTeq for $8.1 billion. Here is Navteq's company descripton from their website:
"NAVTEQ digital map data offers accuracy, detail, reliability, and flexibility. Continuously updated to maintain its freshness and precision, NAVTEQ digital map data not only enables door-to-door routing throughout Europe and North America, it contains millions of Points of Interest (POIs), making it easy to locate everything from restaurants to hospitals and gas stations. You’ll find NAVTEQ data onboard most navigation-enabled vehicles produced in North America and Europe and on all the top Internet navigation sites."
Normally I wouldn't post on a big company acquiring another big company. But the reason Nokia is spending a robust (and dilutive) 12x Navteq's revenues is the opportunity to participate more deeply in location based services. Key quote on Nokia's acquisition reasons:
Nokia's President and Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said "location-based services are one of the cornerstones of Nokia's Internet services strategy. The acquisition of Navteq is another step toward Nokia becoming a leading player in this space."
Location based services are going to be increasingly important to small businesses (see our forecast report "The Connected World of Entrepreneurs" for more on this topic). Nokia's acquisition of Navteq is another example of how important locaton based services have become.
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