"I'm carrying on working with Waze. We only have 51 million users. There are a billion cars in the world so we have a long way to go. I think that with the help of Google we can succeed in capturing a 30% share of the global navigation market," Waze Ltd. president and co-founder Uri Levine told "Globes."
Levine was speaking 10 days after "Globes" was the first to report that Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) was buying the Israeli navigation and traffic report app for more than $1 billion.
A very modest man casually dressed as always in a Waze tee-shirt, Levine said that he had mixed feelings about the sale of Waze. "They took my baby from me. I feel that this is a very great success but on the other hand everything will change. I've got a saying for this. When you reach a bend in the road it's only the end of the journey if you forget to turn the wheel."
Levine insists that among the changes will not be a departure from Israel. "I think the media inflated the topic of the talks with Google, Facebook and Apple. The employees and the company will remain from my viewpoint in Israel forever. This is the natural place for us."
He added, "I've a mission to help young entrepreneurs and I think entrepreneurs have dreams and they need to try and realize them. I have been investing in start ups for many years and now because of the money I think I'll invest even more.
Levine will reportedly receive $38 million for his stake in Waze.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 19, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013