After spending a significant amount of time in virtual oblivion, with the sale of its mobile division to Microsoft, Nokia seems to be staging a grand comeback. Days ago, it announced a pioneering virtual reality camera targeted to professional filmmakers, as reported by HNGN. Today, the company confirmed a major divestment move that saw Here, its mapping business unit, sold to a consortium of German automobile companies for a whopping $3.1 billion.
The group of German automakers include Audi, BMW and Daimler. The amount agreed upon is quite high for a navigation system. But Venture Beat explained that this is not surprising, as Here is a much sought-after property. It appears that the quality of the mapping technology that underpins it is immensely high as well. The system includes maps for 131 countries, including other related data, according to The Wall Street Journal. Today it is on par with the three players considered the world's best in online mapping platforms: Google, TomTom and OpenStreetMap.
Many brand the sale as a coup for the German consortium as carmakers today are in tight competition with technology companies in coming up with the best navigation system for next-generation cars. Uber and Facebook were reportedly interested in acquiring Here, with the former allegedly offering $3 billion for the mapping service, according to Venture Beat. It is expected that Here could have helped Uber realize its ambition of implementing the autonomous vehicle.
The sale is part of the Finnish company's strategy to focus on its telecom network infrastructure business, selling its products to the world's largest carriers such as AT&T and China Mobile, according to the New York Times. To leverage this goal, Nokia has acquired Alcatel-Lucent, which greatly expanded the company's capability as a mobile equipment manufacturer.
