Nokia acquires NAVTEQ

Posted on Monday, October 01 2007 @ 14:56 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Nokia announced it has acquired NAVTEQ. Under the terms of the agreement, Nokia will pay $78 in cash for each share of NAVTEQ including outstanding options for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $8.1 billion (€5.7 billion), or approximately $7.7 billion (€5.4 billion) net of NAVTEQ existing cash balance.

The navigation area is a fast growing business, and with location-based services expanding rapidly into mobile communications devices, the industry is poised for even further growth. NAVTEQ brings a number of key assets to Nokia: a great team with best-in-world maps and navigation industry expertise, a strong customer base and an industry-leading map data and technology platform with the broadest geographical coverage.

NAVTEQ will continue to provide the most advanced and flexible map data platform to navigation industry players. With NAVTEQ, Nokia will further strengthen its location based services offering and bring to market the most innovative, context aware Nokia Internet services with accelerated time to market.

NAVTEQ is a leading provider of comprehensive digital map information for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. NAVTEQ also owns Traffic.com, a web and interactive service that provides traffic information and content to consumers. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985, generated 2006 revenues of $582 million and has approximately 3,000 employees located in 168 offices in 30 countries.

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. Nokia plans to finance the acquisition with a combination of cash and debt, and has secured a commitment on the debt. Nokia anticipates that the acquisition would not impact its share buy-backs under the current mandate, or its future cash distribution strategy in terms of dividends and share buybacks which is subject to the shareholders' approval. The acquisition is expected to be dilutive to Nokia earnings in 2008 and 2009 on a reported basis. However on a cash basis Nokia expects it to be only slightly dilutive in 2008 and slightly accretive in 2009.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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