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^{Bidding war ignited by Nokia’s takeover of Navteq} Garmin outbids TomTom for Tele Atlas by 15 percent

Garmin, the world's largest maker of personal navigation devices, has made a competitive bid of USD 3.3 billion for Dutch digital mapmaker Tele Atlas, topping an offer by rival TomTom by 15 percent.

A bidding war for Tele Atlas was anticipated on October 1, when Nokia bid USD 8.1 billion for Navteq, the only major digital mapping company other than Tele Atlas with global operations.

Garmin's chief executive said the company felt forced to bid for Tele Atlas for competitive reasons, The Associated press reports.

"Historically, Garmin believed that an independent, competitive map duopoly served the industry well," CEO Min Kao said.

"However, in the absence of this independent and competitive method of operating, Garmin must exercise its obligation to provide market leadership."

TomTom is Europe's largest maker of navigation devices, but the Cayman Islands-based Garmin is larger in the US and overall.

TomTom made a bid for the shares of Tele Atlas share in July.

Tele Atlas had endorsed the TomTom bid but said it was reviewing its options in light of Garmin's higher offer.

Related News

• Nokia to acquire NAVTEQ for EUR 5.4 billion (1 Oct 2007)
• US GPS navigation market picks up speed (13 Mar 2007)
• Navteq acquires Traffic.com (8 Nov 2006)
• Tele Atlas adds brand icons to points of interest (6 Nov 2005)
• Hutchison 3G selects location-based partners (18 Sep 2002)
• Tele Atlas digital maps selected for testing Galileo (11 Apr 2002)

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