Garmin drops Tele Atlas bid — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Extends Navteq contract till 2015} Garmin drops Tele Atlas bid

18 Nov 2007 at 15:51 GMT Timo Poropudas

Garmin Ltd., the manufacturer of personal navigation devices last week withdrew its USD 3.3 billion takeover bid for digital mapping company Tele Atlas NV. The move paves the way for TomTom, a Garmin rival that last week offered USD 4.25 billion for Tele Atlas.

Tele Atlas in June had agreed to TomTom’s USD 2.8 billion offer, prompting Garmin to engage in a bidding war for the Dutch firm.

Garmin instead inked an extended pact with Navteq, a Tele Atlas rival, agreeing to remain a Navteq customer through 2015. Navteq is in the process of being acquired by Nokia Corp. for USD 8.1 billion.

Nokia seemed to be assuring Garmin by announcing that it plans to use Navteq technology for pedestrian navigation, tagging, photos and videos. Garmin’s main business is in the car navigation.

Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's EVP multimedia, calls pedestrian location-based services an area that is "totally underdeveloped,” having "basically zero penetration among the 3 billion mobile devices uses globally."

Tele Atlas and Navteq provide digital mapping data that serve as the foundation for navigational applications and location-based services. The Navteq deal left Tele Atlas as the lone sizeable digital mapping player on the field.

Investors liked Garmin’s withdrawal and the company shares went up nearly 14 percent.