Garmin drops bid for Tele Atlas
By Chris Green,
Dutch satellite navigation device maker TomTom looks set to win the battle for digital map maker Tele Atlas, after rival bidder Garmin walked away from the table.
TomTom, best known for its in-car navigation software of the same name and more recently for its all-in-one GPS satellite navigation devices, sparked interest in Belgian cartographer Tele Atlas when it launched a €1.8 billion (£1.2 billion) offer for the business back in July.
The deal initially received support from the board of Tele Atlas, and looked set to complete unchallenged, until rival sat nav device maker Garmin entered the fray at the beginning of November with an improved offer of €2.3 billion (£1.6 billion), which gained board approval and was subsequently recommended to shareholders.
However, eight days after the Garmin offer, TomTom returned with an improved bid of its own, valuing Tele Atlas, which supplies digital maps not only to TomTom, but to several other navigation and map companies including Rand McNally and Google, at €2.9 billion (£2 billion).
That bid proved too rich for Garmin, which has formally withdrawn its interest, allowing the formal offer period for the TomTom bid to commence.
TomTom had sought Tele Atlas to gain control of one of just two global digital map makers, to reduce its dependence on selling hardware and to protect its main source of mapping data in an increasingly competitive and consolidating market that has already seen map maker NavTeq taken over by Nokia.
"Software revenue will in coming years become the largest growing sales stream. TomTom is now well-equipped," said Keijser Capital analyst Nico van Geest in an interview with Reuters.
TomTom now has until 18 December to secure 80 per cent or more of the available shares in TomTom to make its offer unconditional.
advertisement
Latest Internet Features
Microsoft: One year under Steve Ballmer
It's been one year since Bill Gates left Microsoft in Steve Ballmer's hands. What kind of year have we seen?
- The top ten UK web brands
- Can Microsoft make a success out of Silverlight?
- A short history of Phorm
- Top of the flops: 10 pieces of tech that died before they’d lived
- Can Google or Microsoft get any bigger?
- Focus on... Flexible working
- 10 big internet names that have fallen
- The history of search engines
- Top 10 mobile Twitter apps
Latest Internet Reviews
Mozilla Firefox 3.5 review
Rating: ![]()
advertisement
Latest News Videos in Internet
Video: How to set up a Smoothwall firewall
We take you through how to setup your own low-cost firewall system using nothing more than a low spec PC and free software.
Whitepapers
Want more background on today's hottest IT trends?
Visit IT PRO's whitepaper library for more on virtualisation, encryption and other topics.
Register for IT PRO
You'll get exclusive member benefits including free whitepapers, downloads, Webinars and weekly newsletters full of the latest IT PRO news, reviews, insight and expertise.



Social Bookmark this article: What is this?