Skip to main content

Google rumored acquiring Waze - implications for Android?

The Waze acquisition rumors continue - now Globes is reporting that Google is set to acquire Waze for $1.3 Billion.  This follows the previous rumors of Facebook acquiring Waze, Apple acquiring Waze, and more.

See below, after some background, for what I think is the most interesting element in Google's acquiring Waze, which is Waze's potential integration into Android.

Here's what I wrote about 2 months ago about the prospect of Google acquiring Waze:

Google is starting from the opposite end as Facebook but working towards the same goals - they have the popular mapping and location applications and are trying to gain a strong foothold in social networking. But for this reason, a Waze acquisition would help Google less than Facebook - it would improve what they have and move mapping in a social direction, but since they already have Google Maps, Waze wouldn't be as transformational an acquisition as it would be for Facebook.
and here's my follow-up about a month ago:

First, rumors say that the main sticking point in Facebook's negotiations is whether Waze R&D will remain in Israel or move to California. Google would presumably be easier on this subject, since they have several Israeli R&D centers already.... 
...Google [may] decide to use some of its cash on hand to buy Waze, both to improve Google Maps and to deny Facebook and others from catching up. The acquisition would also firm up Google's positioning on iOS devices.

It's an exciting prospect to think of Waze being integrated into Google Maps.

The biggest aspect of Google's acquiring Waze, that I haven't seen discussed much, is that Waze technology could be incorporated not only into Google Maps but into Android.  What this means would remain to be seen.  It might mean that all Android phones with Location Services activated could have their movements automatically analyzed for traffic pattern analysis. It might mean that Android calendars could automatically tell you how long it will take (in real-time traffic conditions) to get to your next appointment. It might mean a lot of things.  Whatever it means, it'll definitely be exciting.....






Popular posts from this blog

33 Indoor Location Related Start-up Acquisitions

  Acquisitions Continue in the Indoor Location Industry; Grizzly Analytics Shows Price Growth at the High End and Continuity at the Low End New York, NY, February 22, 2021 - Despite the recent pandemic, M&A deals in the indoor location area have maintained a steady pace of 4-5 deals a year. At the high end of the spectrum, prices have increased to up to $400 Million for the highest priced recent deal and $165 Million for the second highest. At the lower end, many earlier stage companies have been acquired in the $2-3 Million range. A newly updated report from Grizzly Analytics gives prices and strategic details for 33 acquisitions in the indoor location area.  While the highest priced indoor location acquisitions have historically involved chip-based technologies, recent acquisitions have been more varied. “A few years ago the focus of indoor location M&A was all around pure localization technologies. The biggest deal to date is in fact for a chip-based localization ...
Read more

Intel acquiring gesture recognition start-up InVision Biometrics

News broke this morning ( here , here ) that Intel is about to acquire Israeli start-up company InVision Biometrics .  The company has developed 3D sensor technology that recognizes human movement, including gestures, and interprets them for a wide variety of applications. The company's technology is based on, and apparently builds on, research by Professor Ron Kimmel at the Technion Institute of Technology.  Professor Kimmel has a number of patents in this and other areas, some owned by the Technion and some licensed to companies. For Israel, dubbed the Start-Up Nation , this acquisition continues a number of trends.  It's Intel's second acquisition of an Israeli start-up company in October alone, having acquired Telmap at the beginning of the month.  Both acquisitions are interesting in that they move Intel into new areas that have been previously handled by software.  Grizzly Analytics predicts that Intel will acquire more start-ups in software areas th...
Read more

Adding real value to smartphone camera pictures

Most technology features follow a similar path, from imitation to improvement to transformation.  First they imitate something that came before, like telephones imitating the telegraphs of yesteryear.  Then they improve on them, like phones entering individual homes. Then they transform the entire endeavor, completely surpassing the previous technology, like phones automatically connecting people without operator involvement, which enabled society to communicate in ways that telegraph users never contemplated. Cellphone cameras are following a similar path.  At the beginning cellphone cameras were imitating digital cameras, adding the convenience of carrying only one device but basically doing the same as digital cameras did.  Then they improved on them, both with quality improvements and with the ability to share pictures wirelessly without wiring the phone to a computer.  The ability to instantly share and synchronize pictures from a phone is somewhat transf...
Read more