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Google Close To Buying Waze, Israeli Newspaper Reports

Google Reportedly ThisClose To Snapping Up Map Startup From Facebook
Reuters
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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Google is close to buying Waze for $1.3 billion, an Israeli newspaper reported on Sunday, potentially trumping rival offers for the Israeli mapping start-up.

The report on the website of financial newspaper Globes did not cite sources or provide further details.

Last month sources told Reuters the Internet search giant was in talks to acquire Waze, while a second Israeli newspaper reported Facebook was willing to pay up to $1 billion for the firm.

Facebook is delving deeper into mobile technology as it tries to expand its user base.

Waze is a crowd-sourced, mobile-oriented navigation device for drivers that relies on information provided by its 47 million members to populate its maps.

Mapping services are among the five most-used applications on smartphones and are crucial to engaging and retaining mobile users. The key advantage of owning, rather than licensing, a mapping service is that it allows the product to be personalized for users.

Officials at Waze were not reachable for immediate comment.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by John Stonestreet)

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Before You Go

Why Apple Dropped Google Maps
Google Maps For Android Was Getting Better Than The iOS Version(01 of05)
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Chris Ziegler of The Verge recently reported that Apple pulled out of its contract with Google over a year early, which would explain why Google didn't have a standalone maps app ready to go when iOS 6 launched without Google Maps. Ziegler posits that Google Maps for Android had advanced too far ahead of the iOS version of Google Maps -- and Apple wasn't pleased. "Apple apparently felt that the older Google Maps-powered Maps in iOS were falling behind Android — particularly since they didn't have access to turn-by-turn navigation, which Google has shipped on Android phones for several years," he writes. (credit:AP)
Apple Didn't Like Google Calling The Shots(02 of05)
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AllThingsD's John Paczkowski points to Google's unwillingness to share its spoken turn-by-turn navigation data as the source of the eventual break between Google and Apple on maps in iOS. Writes Paczkowski:
Apple pushed Google hard to provide the data it needed to bring voice-guided navigation to iOS. But according to people familiar with Google’s thinking, the search giant, which had invested massive sums in creating that data and views it as a key feature of Android, wasn’t willing to simply hand it over to a competing platform.
Sources also told Paczkowski that Google wanted more of a hand in iOS maps than Apple was willing to let the company have. "Google [...] asked for in-app branding. Apple declined. It suggested adding Google Latitude. Again, Apple declined," according to Paczkowski. "And these became major points of contention between the two companies, whose relationship was already deteriorating for a variety of other reasons, including Apple’s concern that Google was gathering too much user data from the app." (credit:AP)
The Timing Was Ideal For Apple, Even If It Meant A Half-Baked App(03 of05)
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Well-sourced Apple enthusiast John Gruber speculates that Apple may have given itself the upper hand by terminating is partnership with Google a year early (instead of waiting until mid-2013 for it to expire). "Apple wasn’t going to wait to negotiate until their backs were to the wall with the currently-shipping version of iOS reliant on Google Maps when the old deal expired," Gruber argues. It was in Apple's best interest, he writes, to release its own Maps app with a major iOS release, rather than waiting for the Google contract to expire while a new iOS release was still being prepped. Sure, Apple's Maps are being lampooned across the web; but at least Apple got what it wanted when it wanted it. Right? ...Right? (credit:AP)
Apple Wanted The Best Maps App, And It Wanted It All For Itself(04 of05)
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Slate's Matthew Yglesias argues that Apple dropped Google Maps in the hopes that Apple could one day offer a superior (and native) mapping service in iOS. For now, Apple is relying on its brand power to carry it through the rocky launch of its sub-par Maps app. With a little bit of luck, the company's loyal customer base will stick around long enough until Apple improves ist Maps. "[W]hat they [Apple] achieve by ending the relationship [with Google] early is a chance to some day—hopefully soon—have the very best maps experience in the world," writes Yglesias. "Under iOS 5 they didn't have that, and as long as Apple depended on Google they were never going to have it." (credit:AP)
Apple's Break May Have Made Life A Little Harder For Google(05 of05)
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Although critics and users have panned the glitches in Maps' interactive Flyover feature, the 3D bird's-eye view option has also been called "stunning" and "lovely" (when it works properly). The New York Times suggests that, although Google has a years-long head start on mapping applications, the company has a lot of work to do before it can offer a 3D mapping option similar to what's available on Apple's mobile Maps app. From the Times: "Google has 3-D images in Google Earth, which is a separate app with a separate code base from Google Maps, so it would take some time to combine the two." It seems that Google's facing a steep, rocky road as it rolls toward it release of its Google Maps iOS app, which the Times predicts will be ready at he end of 2012. (credit:AP)
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