German carmakers buy Nokia maps to fend off digital rivals
German carmakers BMW, Audi and Mercedes, will pay around 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) to buy Nokia's maps business, beating out high-tech rivals for location services seen as key to the future of self-driving cars.
Germany's three premium carmakers joined forces and will hold equal stakes in the business, known as HERE, clubbing together to keep the assets from falling into the hands of Internet rivals in Silicon Valley or China.
The deal has an enterprise value of 2.8 billion euros, including liabilities worth nearly 300 million euros, for which Nokia will compensate the carmakers, the Finnish company said on Monday. The transaction is likely to close in the first quarter of 2016.
The deal allows the auto makers to offer new premium features, like autonomous driving, in their luxury cars, shaking up the pecking order between car makers, their parts suppliers and software rivals like Uber, Google or Apple. "With the joint acquisition of HERE, we want to secure the independence of this central service for all vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and customers in other industries," said Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche of Daimler, which invented the motor car in 1886.
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