HELSINKI (AFP) — Nokia, the world's leading maker of mobile phones, said Monday it had agreed to buy US digital mapmaker Navteq for 8.1 billion dollars (5.7 billion euros).
The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of the two companies but remains subject to regulatory approvals and Navteq shareholders' approval, Nokia said.
"The navigation area is a fast-growing business, and with location-based services expanding rapidly into mobile communications devices, the industry is poised for even further growth," Nokia said.
Nokia said it would pay 78 dollars in cash for each Navteq share.
Navteq provides comprehensive digital map information for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices and Internet-based mapping applications.
The Chicago-based group offers digital maps for 69 countries on six continents that can be read by most navigation systems available in North America and Europe.
Nokia's N95 and 6110 models both have GPS readers, and the acquisition of Navteq is expected to give a boost to the Finnish company's sales.
Sales of mobile phones that can show maps are expected to triple by 2010 to more than 112 billion dollars, and in China they are expected to grow tenfold by 2011, according to market research group iSuppli Corp.
Navteq also owns Traffic.com, a web and interactive service that provides traffic information and content to consumers.
The company was founded in 1985 and reported revenues of 582 million dollars in 2006. It has about 3,000 employees in 30 countries.
Nokia's bid price represents a premium of 34 percent over Navteq's share price a month ago.
The Nokia share fell by 3.75 percent to 25.6 euros on the Helsinki stock exchange after the announcement.
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