Owing to a mandatory regulatory filing with the SEC, the exact amount of money that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) paid for its largest acquisition of the year, Waze, is now known to the public. While Google has acquired a total of 16 companies since the beginning of 2013, Waze represents the lion’s share of its investments. The crowd-sourced traffic app based in Israeli was believed to have cost Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) over a billion dollars but it seems they came cheaper. Albeit not much cheaper, but on the lower side of a billion at least.
The Web’s giant, no that’s not a typo because Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) dwarfs all others when it comes to Web revenue, spent $847 million in goodwill, $188 million in intangible assets, minus the $69 million in net liabilities that Waze was carrying—all in all, an outlay of $966 million for the leader in mapping technology. While others will certainly join Apple in its pursuit of Google in the mapping arena, it is presently a two horse race. Waze certainly benefited from this understanding when negotiating with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) certainly had enough money in its coffers to purchase Waze in what would have been a big step taken to catch up to Google in mapping. In addition to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), six weeks prior to Google’s purchase of Waze, it was rumored that Facebook was considering the purchase as well.
Google works in mysterious Waze
“In June 2013, we completed our acquisition of Waze Limited (Waze), a provider of a mobile map application which provides turn-by-turn navigation and real-time traffic updates powered by incidents and route information submitted by a community of users, for a total cash consideration of $966 million,” Google wrote in the filing. “The acquisition is expected to enhance our customer’s user experience by offering real time traffic information to users’ daily navigation needs.”
The filing also reminded investors and analysts of the other 15 acquisitions that cost Google a total of $344 million. While this number certainly pales in comparison, those 15 included the purchase of the high-profile Makani Power, Behavio, and Wavii amongst others.
The real focus of the filing was certainly Waze. In agreeing to the purchase by Google, Waze was essentially saying that they wished to concentrate their efforts on real-time traffic and route mapping rather than trying to compete with the giant that is Google Maps while leaving others out in the cold.
