Garmin Makes a Bid for Tele-Atlas

Having lost the urge to battle the likes of Nokia, who announced it would acquire digital mapper Navteq for $8.1 billion dollars, GPS maker Garmin decided to push in its bid for the only other available company: Tele-Atlas.

If you’ve been following the chain of events with these companies lately, then you probably already know that TomTom, yet another GPS manufacturer, announced that it would acquire Tele-Atlas for 2 billion euros in July.

So Garmin today decided to trump TomTom’s offer by putting 2.3 billion euros on the table, or a 15% premium over its rival’s price.

The end result? Lots of bloodshed, at least on the financial front. Shares of Garmin fell 6.6%, TomTom dropped a grand 17%, and meanwhile, investors in Tele-Atlas danced ’round the campfire as the stock surged another 16%. What’s funny is that the actual price of Tele-Atlas’ stock went OVER Garmin’s offering price - which means shareholders expect some counteroffers.

And to add to the drama, Garmin really doesn’t need Tele-Atlas - it gets most of its map information from Navteq, and Nokia’s already said that it doesn’t plan on changing the way the digital map provider does business.

As always, stay tuned for more on the coming batle that’s a nice break from NokLa’s and the whole wireless industry.

Garmin Goads TomTom - Forbes

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Wireless Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.