Alternative cab service Uber has made a bid on Nokia’s Here mapping and navigation business, according to a new report today from the New York Times, citing anonymous sources.
Uber has offered as much as $3 billion, according to the report, which comes a couple of weeks after Nokia first said it was reviewing its options for Here, including divestment.
Uber has been growing quickly and expanding internationally in the past few years. And through large outside rounds like Goldman Sachs’ $1.6 billion convertible debt round a few months ago, the deal isn’t completely difficult to imagine.
Uber declined to comment. Nokia did not immediately respond to VentureBeat’s request for comment.
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Here’s technology could fit in well with Uber’s autonomous vehicle efforts in Pittsburgh in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. That’s certainly true given that Google, which is building self-driving cars, has Google Maps to draw on.
A team of car manufacturers, including Audi, is also bidding to buy Here, according to today’s report. Audi has been working on autonomous vehicles.
Uber announced just two months ago that it acquired mapping company deCarta.
Nokia, for its part, has been quite active in product development related to Here in recent months, launching in beta on Android, relaunching on iPhone, and even getting embedded in Microsoft’s new Windows 10 maps app.
