Nokia Closes HERE Sale To Consortium Of German Automakers

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While the Nokia deal was announced on August 3, 2015, the deal worth $2.8 billion was completed today following regulatory approval.

Price adjustments changed the HERE deal by about €300,000

Nokia has bid goodbye to its maps and location services division. Once one of the larger provider of said services, the company has completed its sale of HERE to Audi AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG which will own the technology equally. The deal which was announced at €2.8 billion, was lowered to a closing price of €2.55 billion owing to a clause that said the deal was “subject to certain purchase price adjustments.”

HERE just never took off

Nokia’s HERE, which includes mapping, navigation and location services, will give the consortium of automakers what they need for now and possible even will be used when the inevitability of self-driving cars finally arrives.

When Nokia sold its mobile handset business to Microsoft, Nokia continued its work on HERE but it just never turned into the revenue stream the company expected. That’s not to say that it didn’t have a number of suitors when it was made public that the Finnish company was interested in getting out of the business. With the purchase, the automakers will not be forced to sign licensing agreements with Google which was HERE’s biggest competitor.

Both Baidu and Uber seemed to be in the mix when Nokia announced that it was looking to divest itself from HERE, but ultimately the Germans won the day with their proposal.

HERE’s 6000+ employees’ futures remain up in the air following the purchase but the buyers are planning a conference call later today that should shed some light on their futures.

What’s next for Nokia?

Following the sale of its handset unit and now HERE, Nokia concentrated its efforts on its networking business. Specifically it’s plans to continue to create state-of-the-art networks for mobile concerns. Just this Wednesday, Nokia shareholders approved its 15.6 euro acquisition of French telecom Alcatel-Lucent. With the purchase, and the last couple of years, NOK will have gone from being the world’s top cellphone maker to a world leader in networks.

The deal is, of course, subject to regulatory approval but is expected to go through in the early months of 2016.

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