Nokia to sell its Here mapping service to German Automakers, announcement expected tomorrow

✎ CJ Magowan | 🕑 08.03.2015

A consortium of German Automakers is said to acquire Nokia’s Here mapping business for a sum of 3.2 Billion US dollars. Nokia has been rumored to sell its Mapping business to a number of big company’s which includes Microsoft and Apple, but late in June, Audi AG, BMW AG and Daimler AG shows interest in Here map services for future traffic mapping and self-driving cars from these manufacturers.

Here is considered as one of the best mobile mapping services that is now available in multiple smartphone platforms including Windows Phone, Android, iOS, Firefox OS, Fire OS, Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish OS. With maps available in 200 countries all over the world, Here provides services to major mapping providers such as Bing, Facebook and Yahoo. It also provides voice navigation features in 94 countries and with a comprehensive information on routes and traffic information in 33 major countries.

The deal could be announced tomorrow with these car manufacturers are eagerly preparing to be a service providers. With the vast amount of mapping data all over the world, these German car manufacturers found a suitable solution for their in-car navigation system with Nokia Here, while it could potentially provide the best way to navigate our routes, it could also provide a better solution for self-driving cars and in collision detection for our future transports.

Nokia has considered selling its mapping business to help the company focus on their $16.6 Billion purchase of Alcatel-Lucent which would create the second largest network equipment maker in the world.