Uber is a transportation company and chances are its drivers more often than not will rely on navigational and mapping services to get around to places they might not be familiar with. This is why it also does not come as a complete surprise to learn that according to a report from The New York Times, the company has reportedly made a $3 billion bid on Nokia’s HERE maps services.That being said whether or not Uber will be successful in their bid remains to be seen, but unsurprisingly neither Nokia nor Uber have offered to comment on the rumor. In fact Nokia has yet to publicly confirm that their HERE maps services is even up for sale. This stems from a report from last month which suggested that Nokia was at least exploring the idea of selling it off.
Assuming this is true, Uber will have a host of companies that they will have to compete against in bidding for the technology. An earlier report revealed that German carmakers such as BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz were interested in making a bid on the technology too. Apparently this is to stave off tech companies from the US such as Apple, Facebook, or even Google from getting their hands on it.
Jamie Moss an analyst at Ovum, a tech research company in London, explained why Nokia’s HERE is worth so much. “It’s extraordinarily difficult to get this type of mapping data. Other than Google, Here is one of the few companies that can offer this data right now.”