Nokia finally confirmed the sale of the HERE mapping service for 2,8 billion in a consortium of Audi, BMW, and Daimler.
The sale between Nokia and the German carmaker group is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2016. Audi, BMW, and Daimler will hold an equal share in this market and say none of them seeks to acquire the majority of the shares.
"The management of the HERE service will continue to be independent, with the aim of moving the service into the business world as a platform, which will be open to all its customers, the joint venture will not interfere with the business business”, stated the new owners.
"The acquisition aims to ensure the long-term availability of HERE products and services as an open, independent and creative platform for cloud-based maps and other services that will be accessible to all customers in the automotive industry" they added.
Nokia's service earns most of its revenue by licensing its products delivering real-time traffic to many car makers such as Toyota, Ford, Mazda, and Honda.
The car manufacturers who acquired the Nokia maps, aspire to acquire the technology which will help them develop new assistance systems and fully autonomous driving.
With the accurate digital maps, which display the traffic on the roads in real time, with location-based possibilities, along with high-precision cameras and sensors that will be present in modern cars, we will soon see cars with completely new capabilities.
"The HERE service will be able to offer users highly automated driving services. "As the volume of anonymous vehicle data increases, the services will become more convenient, and much more tailored to the individual needs of its users," said Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi Ulrich Hackenberg board member Klaus Fröhlich of BMW and Thomas Weber of Daimler.
Nokia said it expects to receive approximately 2,5 billions of euros from this sale, while buyers have undertaken to repay 300 millions of euros in some other company liabilities.
