Facebook is reportedly is in the final stages of talks to acquire traffic and navigation app maker Waze for up to $1 billion. According to Calcalist reporter Assaf Gilad says the social network is in advanced talks to buy Israel-based Waze for $800 million to $1 billion. The two companies have been in talks for the last six months and are now in the final stages of due diligence. The proposed acquisition is part of Facebook's effort to boost its mobile presence and comes just one year after the Mark Zuckerberg-founded company bought popular photo-sharing app Instagram for a whopping $1 billion.
What Else You Need To Know
- Waze is a social traffic and navigation app that is based on a large community of tens of millions of drivers around the world sharing real-time road info and more.
- Early this year, Waze was rumored to be courted by tech giant Apple for a possible buyout but talks reportedly fell apart.
- The deal, if closed, would mark Facebook's third acquisition in Israel, after it bought Snaptu in 2011 for $70 million and Face.com in 2012 for $60 million.
- Waze has raised $67 million in venture capital to date, from investors like Kleiner Perkins, Li-Ka Shing, Blue Run Ventures, Magma Venture Partners and Vertex Venture Capital.
- Waze currently has 45 million users, Facebook has $1.11 billion monthly active users, and Instagram has more than 100 million active users.
Other sources
But while Apple would be a good fit, and Facebook has its own reasons for wanting a service like Waze, I think Google would be the real loser if it went to either of these companies, for the simple reason that Google Maps is a big part of the company’s mobile appeal — at least for me, and I would suspect for many others.- Mathew Ingram, GigaOM
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