Garmin Leaves Tele Atlas on Road Not Taken

Garmin, the No. 1 designer of handy navigation system, said it will ball out of what personal become a bidding time of war all for the matched to acquire the final sovereign originator of the digital map that dominion GPS (global position system) devices.

Garmin offered US$3.3 billion to acquire Tele Atlas, simply to have its consummate important contender, TomTom, covering it next to an give assessment 2.9 billion euros, or $4.2 billion.

It be widely looked-for that Garmin would sort another offer, but the business announced Friday it will drop its bid for the company and instead extend an extant partnership with the other main producer of digital maps -- Navteq.

Navteq be inwardly the manoeuvre of human being acquire with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) , which strike a buy and vend to purchase it in October for $8.1 billion.

Garmin sign a six-year brand new building to a deal that give it access to Navteq's digital bracket maps, it said, extend an existing agreement through 2015. The deal also gives Garmin the right to extend the partnership by another four years.

The specific fiscal vocabulary of the deal be not disclose.

"We acknowledge the effect create the preferred attraction for Garmin, our patrons and stakeholders," said Garmin CEO Min Kao. The new deal "ensures the availability of characteristic map anecdote for our customers, and provide a extension in for enhanced conciliation." Garmin share soar against the report, getting higher higher than 14 percent in morning trade Friday to $96. TomTom shares rose and Tele Atlas shares fell in European trading.

Garmin and TomTom sought Tele Atlas to ensure access to mapping data for their personal systems and by a method of diversifying their revenue stream to rely minor level on hardware sale by enable them to sell unripe or enhanced map data to other GPS mechanism makerPurchase Cables & Interconnects MacTOP.

TomTom had already acquired a 28 percent stake in Tele Atlas, a proof that strong the bidding from Garmin's vertebral column of belief. At one point, speculation ramped aware almost a at all pooled project linking the two being formed to own the map maker, but neither company ever confirmed such consultation take dumpOrder Hard Disk Drive Sony.