Google has reached an agreement to buy navigation app maker
Waze in an agreement believed to be valued upwards of $1 billion, beating
rivals Facebook and Apple, which were also believed to be mulling a bid for the
startup.
The much-rumored deal was confirmed by Waze chief executive
Noam Bardin on a company blog.
"We are keyed up about the prospect of working with the
Google Maps team to improve our search capabilities and to join them in their
ongoing efforts to build the best map of the world," he wrote.
Waze, which currently boasts nearly 50 million users, offers
map and traffic data services using satellite signals sent from smartphones.
The firm was reported to be in discussions with Facebook last month, as the
social network giant looked for ways to strengthen its Home offering.
But according to Israeli website Globes, that deal foundered
on Facebook's insistence that the developers moved to the U.S.
Brian McClendon, VP of Geographic Services at Google said,
"The Waze product development team will remain in Israel and operate
separately for now. We're excited about the prospect of enhancing Google Maps
with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhancing Waze
with Google's search capabilities."
Maps have become a key battleground in the smartphone wars,
not least since of the self-inflicted damage Apple unleashed with its
calamitous release of its own geo-location app for iOS 6.
Waze has attracted suitors partly in credit of how accurate
its traffic updates are in areas where it has gained critical mass. The app
uses a crowd sourcing approaching to traffic monitoring, providing real-time
updates on routes.
If the deal goes ahead, it would be among the major
acquisitions Google has made. It paid an eye-popping $12.5 billion for handset
maker Motorola Mobility in 2011, but has largely focussed on smaller deals. At
the $1.3 billion price tag being generally reported, the deal is not far off
what Google splashed out for YouTube in 2006.
