“In terms of strategic advantage, it’s not clear what buying TomTom would bring to the table for Apple). TomTom may certainly be interested in moving into the mobile-phone space but there is no obvious reason to believe Apple would want to make a move into the navigation space. If anything, the technology sector’s view of navigation has been severely chastened after the wild sums of money spent by TomTom and Nokia ( NOK – news – people ) on buying digital map companies; demand has not grown enough to justify the premiums paid,” Laurent reports.
“Another well-placed source in Amsterdam familiar with TomTom’s strategy also poured cold water on the bid talk, describing an offer from Apple as ‘unlikely,'” Laurent reports. “He said that TomTom’s management owned 52% of the company, which would be an obvious deterrent for an outside buyer, with little chance of a hostile or under-the-radar approach.”
Full article here.
