Garmin Doesn't Want To Be Left Without Maps… Bids On Tele Atlas

from the musical-mapping-chairs dept

Over the summer, navigation device maker TomTom announced plans to buy Tele Atlas, one of the two leading providers of mapping data. Earlier this month, Nokia announced plans to buy Navteq, the other major provider. That resulted in immediate speculation about how Garmin (TomTom’s main competitor) would respond. Apparently, the answer is with lots and lots of money. Garmin has now put in an unsolicited bid of $3.3 billion for Tele Atlas, hoping to outbid its rival by 15%. So, at this point, a game of musical chairs begins, with Nokia, Garmin and TomTom fighting it out over the two mapping data providers. Since both TomTom and Garmin seem to feel that they need to have Tele Atlas, don’t be surprised to see the price keep going up.

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Companies: garmin, navteq, nokia, teleatlas, tomtom

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Comments on “Garmin Doesn't Want To Be Left Without Maps… Bids On Tele Atlas”

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Tom says:

Garmin bids for Tele Atlas, tops TomTom proposal by 15%
(4:37 AM ET) TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Garmin Ltd., (GRMN) the Cayman Islands producer of navigation and communications equipment driven by global-positioning technology, proposed to buy Tele Atlas NV for 24.5 euros ($35.31) a share, or 2.3 billion euros ($3.31 billion). Separately, Garmin reported third-quarter earnings rose 57%, and it named Cliff Pemble president and chief operating officer. Tele Atlas (TLATF) is the Gent, Belgium, producer of navigation and mapping technology.

Garmin said the deal is subject to conditions including antitrust clearances and receipt of at least two-thirds of Tele Atlas’s share capital. Garmin said it has financing in place for the proposal. The offer price is a 2% premium to Tele Atlas’s closing price of 24.01 euros in Amsterdam trading on Tuesday. It is 15% higher than TomTom’s (TMOAF) proposal of 21.25 euros a share. And Garmin said it is 48% above Tele Atlas’s stock price on July 20, before the deal proposals started. TomTom is the Amsterdam navigation-solutions provider. (Updates to add headquarters and description for TomTom.)

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