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Google Buys Waze: Social Mapping App Will 'Enhance' Google Maps

Google Makes $1 Billion Purchase To Keep Facebook Away
By 

Technology reporter, The Huffington Post

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Waze finally has a buyer.

Google on Tuesday announced that it had bought Waze, a social GPS mapping app that specializes in real-time crowd-sourced traffic.

The price was not disclosed but a report on Monday in The New York Times put the number at more than $1 billion. AllThingsD, a well-respected technology blog, said the deal was $1.1 billion, according to its sources.

"We’re excited about the prospect of enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhancing Waze with Google’s search capabilities," Brian McClendon, Google's vice president of Geo, wrote in a blog post announcing the acquisition.

Both Facebook and Apple were reportedly interested in buying Waze. Google's purchase now keeps those rivals away from the app.

"That is a competitive move in my eyes," said Thilo Koslowski, the vice president and automotive practice leader at Gartner, a technology research firm. "So that Facebook and Apple and maybe even others going forward cannot make that same move."

Waze's product development team will stay in Israel, where the company, now based in Palo Alto, Calif., was founded.

Wazers, as they're called, alert each other to accidents, road closures and other things that would potentially slow down traffic. Koslowski said that these social elements are among the motivations behind Google's purchase.

"I think Google was trying to crack the code on this and that's what they're getting with Waze," he said, adding that the app's crowdsourced information will "become another data input for Google Maps."

"I think you will see Google maps leveraging the insights from users of the Waze application for their map data quality," said Koslowski. "And that will make a stronger map."

Waze says it has 47 million global users, according to The New York Times.

The free app makes money from location-based advertising. TechCrunch reported in January that the company's 2012 revenue was less than $1 million.

Click here to read the full blog post from Google.

This post has been updated with comments from Thilo Koslowski and additional information about Waze.

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Before You Go

Google's Biggest Acquisitions
#6 - ITA Software ($700 million)(01 of06)
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What people said...Henry Harteveldt, analyst at Forrester Research: "Google's mission is to organize the world's information, and ITA does that for travel"Edward Hasbrouck, author and policy analyst for Consumer Travel Alliance: "Google's purchase of ITA Software is likely to be a bad thing for travelers."Acquired: 2010Source: Google Blog (credit:Getty)
#5 - AdMob ($750 million)(02 of06)
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What people said...Neil Strother, analyst at Forrester Research: "The deal shows that Google is serious about becoming a major player in the mobile advertising ecosystem"Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center: "We've reached a point in Google's evolution in which Washington agencies and Congressional committees need to look more closely at the company's dominance of Internet services"Acquired: 2010Source: Google Blog (credit:AP)
#4 - Waze ($1.1 Billion)(03 of06)
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Google bought mapping startup Waze for $1.1 billion on June 11, 2013, AllThingsD reports. (credit:AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
#3 - YouTube ($1.65 billion)(04 of06)
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What people said...Goldman Sachs: "We expect investors to be excited by the strategic opportunities, but they will be skeptical of the $1.65 billion price, given YouTube's early stages" Martin Pyykkonen, analyst at Global Crown Capital: "I would think that a lot of advertisers would be willing to pay a premium for a video search ad opposed to paid search text"Acquired: 2006Source: Google (credit:Getty)
#2 - DoubleClick ($3.1 billion)(05 of06)
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What people said...Federal Trade Commission: "The FTC lacks the legal authority to block the transaction on grounds, or require conditions to this transaction, that do not relate to antitrust"Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy: "The FTC is supposed to protect the privacy of Americans in the digital age. The excuse offered by the majority of the commission-that consumer privacy can't be addressed by current antitrust law-reveals a lack of leadership and determination to protect U.S. consumers"Acquired: 2008Source: Google Blog (credit:Flickr: Bigmouthmedia)
#1 - Motorola Mobility ($12.5 billion)(06 of06)
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What people are saying...Henry Blodget, editor-in-chief at Business Insider: "This deal could end up being a disaster"Jeff Jarvis, author: "Google buys rat poison"Hendi Susanto, analyst at Gabelli & Co: "Google and Motorola will create a stronger hardware - software integration to compete with Apple, Samsung, and HTC."Acquired: 2011Source: Google Blog (credit:AP)
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