TQ previously reported that popular social networking website Facebook and search engine giant Google are looking to acquire free navigation startup, Waze. In fact, some reports have even claimed that Facebook has made a roughly $1 billion acquisition offer to Waze. However, the social GPS service was looking to take the bid beyond $1 billion, after Google and other big tech companies showed keenness in acquiring the company. But now AllThingsD has issued a fresh report on Wednesday, May 29th, which has suggested that the months-long negotiations between Waze and Facebook have come to an end without a fruitful result. As a result of that Facebook has now pulled itself out of the race to acquire GPS navigation company.
Prior to this, Bloomberg has reported that, “Facebook, Google and other companies are beefing up efforts to court customers on the go. The potential bidding tussle for Waze, which uses information from online communities to improve driving directions, reflects the widening importance of maps on smartphones and other handheld gadgets.
None of the bidders is close to clinching a deal and the talks may fall apart, they said. Waze may also walk away from the discussions and use more venture backing to expand its mapping program, which has more than 40 million users.”
Nevertheless, now sources have divulged that the negotiations between Facebook and Waze remained unsuccessful because of “conflicts over whether or not the Israel based Waze team would move over to the US and settle at Facebook’s headquarters in California,” according to iPhoneinCanada. It is said that if the negotiations between the two companies would have remain fruitful then, by getting hold of a popular mapping service Facebook would have thrived into mobile business, as it would have complimented the popular messaging and photo apps of the social site.
“Waze was built as a social application “from the ground up” — a philosophy Facebook especially espouses — rather than as a mapping application with a social layer slapped atop it. In essence, it fit with Facebook’s vision of a social service. So it wouldn’t be impossible for the two companies to figure out terms that make sense for both sides.”
Some previous reports have also indicated that besides Facebook and Google, Apple was also interested in buying Waze and it was holding talks with the startup. By acquiring the app maker the California-based company could enhance its mapping app but at All Things D’s D11 conference Apple CEO Tim Cook clearly declined such reports by saying that his company had not made any bid to buy Waze.
Source: iPhoneinCanada, iPhoneinCanada
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