Nokia regroups Navteq under location and commerce

Nearly four years after Nokia Corp. (NOK) paid $8.1 billion to acquire Navteq Corp., the struggling Finnish company is repositioning the business under the arm of “location & commerce.” The new division, to be headed by EVP Michael Halbherr starting July 1, will integrate the Navteq business and Nokia’s social location services.
The division’s mission is to develop new products and services that integrate social components, location and new conduits for commerce. The target runs the full gamut, including consumers, device manufacturers, app developers, Internet service providers, merchants and advertisers.
As Nokia transitions to the Windows Phone operating system for its forthcoming devices, the company’s assets in mapping have been touted as resource that Nokia plans to contribute toward the growth of Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) platform. Nokia’s regrouping could portend greater plans in that regard.
“Focusing on location and commerce is a natural next step in Nokia’s Services journey. We will provide next generation social-location applications and commerce to differentiate Nokia. We also aim to extend our content and services offerings to all consumers by making them available to partners and customers on a wide variety of devices and operating systems,” CEO Stephen Elop said in a prepared statement.