Digital Trends
GPS maker TomTom has turned up the pressure in its efforts to acquire digital mapmaker Tele Atlas, saying it will increase its offer to €30 per share. The new offer represents a major increase over the €21.25 per share the company initially offered for Tele Atlas, and significantly tops the €24.50 per share bid made last week from rival Garmin.
The new bid values Tele Atlas at about €2.9 billion, or about $4.2 billion USD.
Dutch digital mapmaker Tele Atlas has been pursued by Amsterdam-based GPS maker TomTom since mid-year: TomTom announced its intent to aquire the company in July for €21.25 per share—kind of a low-ball bid—and formally announced the offer in early October. The question was whether TeleAtlas shareholders would bite: although Tele Atlas formally endorsed the TomTom offer, Tele Atlas’s shares had been consistently trading above the level of TomTom’s offer, and Nokia’s recent move to acquire competing mapmaker Navteq for some $8.1 billion applied more pressure to the possible deal.
In the wake of yesterday’s announcement that Finland’s Nokia plans to acquire digital mapping and navigation service provider Navteq for $8.1 billion, Dutch GPS device manufacturer TomTom has formally launched its $2.5 billion takeover offer for Tele Atlas.
TomTom originally announced the takeover plan last July, and re-iterated its offer of €21.25 per share in cash; however, Tele Atlas shares continued to trade above that level, buoyed after news of Nokia’s move to purchase Navteq—that means Tele Atlas investors may not be very tempted by TomTom’s below-market-value offer for their shares. TomTom says the tender period for Tele Atlas shares will open tomorrow, October 3, and run through December 4, 2007, and it plans to declare the offer unconditional if 80 percent of Tele Atlas shares are tendered.
Digital mapping company Tele Atlas announced today that the newly-available Pioneer AVIC Z1 in-car GPS-based navigation system on the TomTom Go 910 incorporate new phonetic data from Tele Atlas to improve the quality of speech technology used by the systems.
If you’ve ever used an in-car GPS or similar device with speech synthesis capabilities, you’ve probably had a few laughs
Everyone wants to be an insider, and you can be one too! Choose your poison: sign-up for our Newsletter, join us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. Do all three and you'll be swimming in the the latest news, reviews, videos and more gadget goodness!
Become a DT soldier! Join us on Facebook and share the best news, guides, videos and other cool information directly with all your friends. Some might even thank you for it!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Facebook.
Do you like information in small snippets? Then our Twitter feed is just for you. Follow Digital Trends and you'll be able to catch up daily on our latest content, or even interact directly with our team. Tweet Tweet!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Twitter.
That’s Right, Sign-up For Our Monthly Random Prize Drawings and You Could Be That Winner.
