Audi, BMW and Daimler Agree on Joint Acquisition of Nokia’s HERE Digital Mapping Business

HERE is a company that builds high-definition maps and location services for navigation software, and is a direct rival to Google Maps and Google Street View.

Nokia-owned HERE offers services to three basic clienteles, which are consumers, automotive and enterprise. Consumers can use the HERE smartphone app that can even be used without an Internet connection. On the enterprise side of business, HERE helps companies manage their resources with truck routing and data visualisation, among other things.

However, the automotive portion of their business is important, as HERE provides mapping and guidance technology to several automakers, making their cars more intelligent and safer.

An agreement has just been announced between Nokia and German car manufacturers Audi AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz), securing the long-term availability of HERE’s products and services as an open, independent and value creating platform. All four companies will hold an equal stake in HERE, and their real-time maps and location services will continue to be accessible to all automotive manufacturers as well as businesses in other sectors.

High-precision maps are crucial to the development of autonomous vehicles, as they can help identify icy roads and traffic jams more quickly and help reduce the risk of accidents. And since Google is working on their own self-driving car, the German automakers probably figured acquiring HERE would be a good strategy.

The transaction has yet to be approved by antitrust authorities, but should be a done deal in the first quarter of 2016.