It’s not a secret that Nokia is willing to sell its HERE maps division in order to raise more money to puts towards its communication networks business but so far no deal has materialized even though the division is reportedly being courted by multiple suitors. There were reports that ridesharing service Uber had a bid for this multibillion-dollar division of Nokia but it’s now being said that Uber has lost out to a consortium of German car makers which have significantly deeper pockets.
The New York Times reports citing three people with knowledge of the talks that Uber is now out of the running to acquire HERE maps from Nokia. Uber’s offer for this division is said to have been as high as $3 billion.
Instead there are now negotiations taking place between Nokia and a consortium of German car manufacturers which includes Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW. They already rely heavily on Nokia’s digital mapping division for their onboard navigation systems.
This consortium seems to be doing a good enough job of fending other potential suitors off, there were reports that private equity and industry players such as Chinese tech giants Baidu and Tencent were also interested in acquiring HERE maps from Nokia.
Price is said to be a big issue in these talks with Nokia hoping for as much as $4 billion for this division, the car makers are believed to be offering less, but no official figures have come up yet.