Nokia Here: German carmaker secure card service – SPIEGEL ONLINE

The Finnish telecommunications group Nokia conceded for its map service Here significantly less than previously expected. The German automaker Daimler, BMW and Audi were for around 2.5 billion euros the award, as the manager magazin reported. So far had been of a price of up to four billion euros the speech.

All other interested parties have withdrawn from the sales process, it is of negotiation circles. Is likely that will be decided in July a final decision on the sale. Neither Mercedes nor BMW or Audi wanted to comment on the near completion. Also Nokia declined to comment. By purchasing reduce the carmaker dependence on Google and Apple.

The automakers want to use the Here technology to gain current information as possible for the computer steering of cars and new mobility services. They had long been striving together towards a takeover of Here. Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri had however started an open bidding process in order to achieve a maximum price. American companies such as Uber and Facebook, which had initially shown interest would, in the meantime withdrawn, it was said at Nokia.

TomTom wants with Bosch cooperate

Also Here competitor TomTom seeks cooperation with the automotive industry, including the supplier Bosch. Along one wants to work on the development of highly accurate maps for automated cars. The Dutch company was to create maps, while Bosch specifies the requirements for accuracy and content. Until the end of 2015 there should be highly accurate maps of all highways and highway-like roads in Germany. First self-propelled regional maps utilizes Bosch already for test drives on the A81 motorway in Germany and in the US.

The founded in 1991 navigation device pioneer TomTom continues to have long known that there are now comparable products on almost any smartphone. On Tuesday, the company announced that the profit in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period last year declined by 71 percent to 2.5 million euros. Tom Tom earns most of its revenue by selling Navis, but also sells GPS running watches or maps licenses to companies such as Apple.