A report from a little over a week ago suggested that Nokia was looking to sell off its HERE Maps division, but the question is who might be interested in purchasing it? After all Nokia’s HERE Maps service is a pretty decent navigational tool, although it admittedly does not have the same pull as other mapping apps out there, such as Google Maps, for example.
That being said, could Apple be interested in it? A report from Bloomberg is suggesting that Nokia is looking at Apple to potentially acquire their HERE Maps division, according to their sources. Nokia is said to be looking for $3.2 billion if they were to sell off the division, a very huge drop from its original value in which Nokia had bought it for $8.1 billion in 2008.
While $4.9 billion is a huge loss, factoring in the cost of inflation and that number is even bigger. Now Apple isn’t the only company Nokia is looking at as the Bloomberg report claims that the Finnish company is eyeing the likes of Alibaba, Amazon, and Facebook. Companies such as Baidu, Sirius XM, and Harman International Industries are other companies named in the report. They are also reportedly looking at German carmakers as well as private-equity firms.
Now as it stands, Apple’s Map app isn’t exactly the best or most reliable mapping app at the moment, or at least not how Apple had advertised it to be. It is possible that Apple could make huge improvements to its Maps app if they were to acquire the technology and assets of the HERE Maps division, but whether or not they actually do remains to be seen. Unsurprisingly all companies involved declined to offer up a comment.