Google Inc. has confirmed the acquisition of navigation and traffic report app Waze Ltd.. The deal was first reported by "Globes" on Sunday. The amount of the acquisition was not disclosed but sources believe it was for $1.1 billion.
In a company blog Google VP Geo Brian McClendon wrote, "To help you outsmart traffic, today we’re excited to announce we’ve closed the acquisition of Waze. This fast-growing community of traffic-obsessed drivers is working together to find the best routes from home to work, every day."
He added, "The Waze product development team will remain in Israel and operate separately for now. We’re excited about the prospect of enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhancing Waze with Google’s search capabilities."
"We’ll also work closely with the vibrant Waze community, who are the DNA of this app, to ensure they have what’s needed to grow and prosper."
"The Waze community and its dedicated team have created a great source of timely road corrections and updates. We welcome them to Google and look forward to working with them in our ongoing effort to make a comprehensive, accurate and useful map of the world," he concluded.
Waze CEO Noam Bardin wrote on the company blog, "I'm excited to announce that today we accepted the offer to join Google. Larry Page, Brian McClendon and the Google maps staff have followed our development closely and are excited about what we have achieved. They are partners in our vision to serve global mapping, updated in real-time by communities and those interested in helping us develop."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 11, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013