TomTom ups bid for Tele Atlas

TomTom NV fired the latest salvo in the bidding war for Tele Atlas, offering to acquire the Dutch digital mapping company for $4.25 billion.
The Amsterdam, Netherlands-based maker of car navigation equipment outbid rival Garmin Ltd., which last week offered $3.3 billion for Tele Atlas. Tele Atlas in July had initially agreed to TomTom’s $2.8 billion offer, sparking the bidding war.
“Tele Atlas will review the terms and conditions of the new offer” from TomTom, Tele Atlas said, “and will inform the market on further steps as soon as reasonably possible.”
The latest volley comes just a month after Nokia Corp.’s successful $8.1 billion bid for Navteq, leaving Tele Atlas as the lone player of size on the market. While the company has yet to finish in the black-it lost $19 million last year-the bidding war highlights the potential investors see in location-based services.
Wireless users are already helping drive growth in the LBS space, according to a recent report from Nielsen Mobile.
“While location-based services deliver highly personalized offerings such as friend-finding and other location-aware features, navigation represents the lion’s share of revenue,” according to the market research firm. “Moreover, favorable carrier deck placement for LBS applications and the bundling of navigation services with data packages have contributed to record high downloads.”