There has been a confirmation of the sale of the HERE mapping unit to a number of German automakers from Nokia through a press release on August 3rd. These German automakers include AUDI AG< BMW, and Daimler AG.
Originally, the reported purchase price was about €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion), but now the confirmed price is actually €2.8 billion ($3.07 billion). It’s expected that the transaction will close in Q1 2016.
The sale of of the HERE unit isn’t anywhere near the $8.1 billion that Nokia paid back in 2007 for Navteq, which eventually became HERE. Originally, Nokia thought that HERE would be a global challenger to Google Maps when it was in the handset business.
The operating profit of HERE was €28 million ($30 million) for the first have of the year, which was about 1/100 of the selling price.
As previously discussed, the German automakers were motivated to buy HERE to support their self-driving car initiatives:
HERE is laying the foundations for the next generation of mobility and location based services. For the automotive industry this is the basis for new assistance systems and ultimately fully autonomous driving. Extremely precise digital maps will be used in combination with real-time vehicle data in order to increase road safety and to facilitate innovative new products and services. On the basis of the shared raw data, all automobile manufacturers can offer their customers differentiated and brand-specific services.
There would be continued investment in HERE by the automakers by licensing its technology and data to third parties. Here would continue to be a “strong and independent provider of maps and location-based services . . . available to all customers across industries,” according to the press release.