The largest part of this amount has fallen on Israeli mapping start-up Waze, 966 million (all in cash, it seems that the payment in shares is considered obsolete). The acquisition was announced six weeks ago, after weeks of speculation that Apple and Facebook were fighting over Waze. Some analysts believe that the main reason for purchasing was actually to stop Waze from falling into the hands of competitors since it would significantly enhance their anemic navigation solutions.
Waze has become known primarily for the ability that allows users to to add information about the current status and traffic events by themselves, which are then distributed to all other users. Consequently, the driver uses the navigation Waze has an insight into the real situation on the ground. Apart from Waze, including major acquisitions since the beginning of the 2013 they named Makani Power (flying kites that generate electricity), Behavio (analysis of location data on the cell phone users) and Wavii (personalized news).
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