Telenav has bought GPS navigation firm Skobbler for $23.8 million
(£14.5 million, AU$27.3 million), a move that could make Telenav a major
rival to current leaders in the mapping market.
The acquisition,
which closed this week, set back Telenav $19.2 million (£11.7 million,
AU$22 million) in cash and $4.6 million (£2.8 million, AU$5.3 million)
in shares. It is part of an effort to make what Telenav calls the
"Wikipedia of Maps."
Skobbler is well-known for its GPS navigation
apps that use OpenStreetMap (OSM), a UK-based open source mapping
project. Telenav is focusing big time on OSM, with the latter's founder,
Steve Coast, joining the company last year.
Skobbler's employees, based in Germany and Romania, will now join Telenav's team.
Mapping the world
OSM
has more than 1.5 million registered editors, constantly expanding the
map coverage. Telenav's chairman and CEO, HP Jin, said that the company
plans to push its Scout GPS service with OSM throughout the world,
building upon previous success in the US with the HTML5 version.
Skobbler expertise's will give it a major boost in this area.
Jin
said: "The benefits of an open source model will provide an enormous
opportunity to change the economic models of navigation and other
location-based services."
The open source project has been hailed
as an alternative to the market giant Google Maps. While it might be a
while before it has a chance to aim for Google's crown, this latest
acquisition is sure to spur adoption of OSM throughout the world.
