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October 1, 2007

Nokia Buys NAVTEQ


Nokia on Board

Just three months after TomTom acquired mapping provider Tele Atlas, phone manufacturing powerhouse Nokia is dropping a cool $8.1 billion to purchase map-making company NAVTEQ.

Garmin, who uses the maps provided by Navteq, believes that they will still “continue to have a good relationship with Navteq” despite the buyout.

The Nokia-Navteq deal is the second involving a mapmaking company in the last few months. In July, TomTom acquired Tele Atlas for $2.8 billion.

Nokia made the deal with Navteq so they continue to add more navigation features to its phones.

“Location-based services are one of the cornerstones of Nokia’s Internet services strategy,” Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s chief executive, said in a statement. “The acquisition of Navteq is another step toward Nokia becoming a leading player in this space.”

Garmin reported a drop in there shares by more than 12 points as of Monday morning. Shares of Nokia also dropped in trading in Europe Monday. Investors reportedly were concerned that the company had agreed to pay too much for Navteq, according to analysts.

So it sounds like company investors aren’t too happy with the deal, but consumers should hopefully see no problems with the continued use of their Garmin (or other Navteq) devices.

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