Tencent and NavInfo bid for Nokia HERE with 4 billion dollars
2015-5-28
At present, the war of bidding for Nokia’s HERE Maps service appears a few new changes. According to the quotations of Bloomberg; source, a financial group composed by Tencent, NavInfo, Sweden EQT Partners AB will become a new member of this bidding team that gives the highest offer as far as we know--4 billion dollars.
Bidding war for Nokia HERE
We have reported that Baidu, jointly with three Germany major motor manufacturers BMW, Audi and Daimler, is going to start the bidding for HERE Maps Service. However, according to the newest source of Bloomberg, Baidu seems to give up the coalition with those three motor manufacturers but turn to cooperate with Uber and then it forms a financial group with European Apax Partners to participate the bidding again. At the beginning of May, Uber also submitted a formal acquisition intention for Nokia with a offer up to 3 billion dollars.
Apart from the two financial groups mentioned above and the financial group composed by Germany motor manufacturers, Microsoft also joined the war that it has already come up with hopeful minor shares of purchasing HERE Maps service; three American private equity firms, Hellman&Friedman?Silver Lake Management and Thoma Bravo, also plan to participate the bidding.
The value of HERE Map service has been increasing as the number of bidders like an incoming tide raises all boats. Nokia has expressed the hope that the selling prices of business is more than 3 billion euro ( about 3.4 billion dollars ).Sources said the next round of bidding for HERE Maps service will be conducted in two weeks.
Among those many teams that bid for HERE Maps Service, China’s Internet giants has showed stronger willingness of acquisition that can be seen from the high price of 4 billion dollars they offer.
As we all know, since Alibaba becomes a shareholder of AutoNavi, domestic market of map business has started to adjust, which now has developed a new pattern of Alibaba and EMapGo and AutoNavi, Baidu and Changdiwanfang, Tencent and Navinfo and Kelinghangrui. Therefore, at some level, the domestic Internet giants also play a role of map business, and in the future competition in the domestic market of map business, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent are participants.
But whoever it is, they are faced with a weakness : in spite of China, they lack the map data of other countries and regions. The bid for Nokia HERE Maps service will be a strategic opportunity that they expand their overseas map markets to become an international map enterprise.
Therefore, we see that Baidu turns to cooperate with Uber to participate the bid because that the joint bid with Germany motor manufacturers Baidu can only achieve a few shares and only uses the technologies of HERE Maps Service with China which undoubtedly and greatly discounts the significance of acquisition. At present, what kind of agreement that has been reached between Baidu and Uber is known to no one. But that cannot be ignored is that Baidu is an investor of Uber and the two sides has reached a global strategic partnership; Baidu and HERE Maps Service also set up a cooperation relationship, in which the latter party provides Baidu Map with map data outside China to make Baidu Map become China