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No Deal in Sight for Apple to Acquire Waze

Thursday January 3, 2013 10:00 am PST by Eric Slivka
Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that Apple was interested in purchasing Waze, the social turn-by-turn navigation company. According to the report, Apple was offering approximately $400 million plus an additional $100 million in incentives, but Waze was holding out for closer to $750 million.

TechCrunch's MG Siegler now reports that there is no deal in sight.
And while Mike Butcher also claimed multiple sources in his original post, you’ll note that he was quick to qualify the information as a “rumor” (or in British parlance — Mike is English — a “rumour”). Because that’s exactly what it was. This isn’t a rumor (of a non-deal). There is no deal is happening. At least not now or anytime soon.
Siegler goes to note that Apple and Waze have in fact probably had low-level conversations about a closer partnership given that the two companies are already working together on Apple's mapping products, but he says that the talks are so far nothing more than the typical interactions seen between partner companies on a daily basis.

[ 66 comments ]


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Elijen
88 months ago

They could pay $750 million and buy Waze

...OR BUY GOOGLE and use their Maps?!

I doubt they could buy Google ... not even if it were for sale.
Rating: 9 Votes
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Razeus
88 months ago
Waze needs to do something about that stupid logo.
Rating: 9 Votes
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peterh988
88 months ago
Ahh, the good old rumour (yes, I'm British) mill.


Monday: Tim Cook nips into Starbucks

Tuesday: "Apple in advanced talks to purchase Starbucks!"
Rating: 7 Votes
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Bathplug
88 months ago
Who cares? We have google maps back.
Rating: 6 Votes
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srxtr
88 months ago

In before someone says "WAZE is stupid. They should have sold out"


WAZE is stupid. They should have sold out
Rating: 5 Votes
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samcraig
88 months ago

Waze my yet "sell out" but their map is well reviewed and very popular and they know it. Why should they take what Apple offered when they are the "hot map app" at this point?

In the end, they'll likely get more than the $400m rumored price. Upwards of $600m isn't outside the bounds of reason. Apple is rather desperate to shore up their map program and we all know how much cash Apple has on hand (and overseas)=tens of billions of $$.


Or they won't sell. DropBox didn't.

Some companies enjoy being independent. The people that work there aren't looking to be absorbed by another big company. There are many factors to be considered.

When/if they sell, however - both parties will negotiate. So no party here is/was "stupid" for walking away at this point.
Rating: 5 Votes
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nick_elt
88 months ago

They could pay $750 million and buy Waze

...OR BUY GOOGLE and use their Maps?!


your joking right???

edit: i see you answered that one..

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Stupid name (and logo), stupid app, stupid company. I had never even heard of them until this post. There are so many other options for this completely unoriginal app, business.

Even $400 mil. is too much. Apple better not pull a Facebook like Instagram purchase. Apple should completely abandon the idea and then Waze will eventually fade away into nothing and be forgotten when they go out of business. $750 mil.!?! Idiots...


I dont know about them either, so i cant tell if 400mil is too much or cheap. How do you know? i think your post was more stupid than their logo.
Rating: 5 Votes
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basesloaded190
88 months ago

They could pay $750 million and buy Waze

...OR BUY GOOGLE and use their Maps?!


Man I wish there was still a downvote button.

Why on earth would you think that would be a good or even possible idea??
Rating: 5 Votes
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samcraig
88 months ago

Not quite. Google has a market value of about $250 billion and Apple only has about $150 billion in cash.... of course that is a comparison of total market value to how much cash on hand a company has, so its pretty impressive.

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Its being updated every day. Just recently I noticed a bunch of new POIs in Charlotte, NC.

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You have to admire people that can say no to quitting work and taking a billion dollars, so they can continue to get up and go to work every day. I would not be one of them. I'd much rather spend time with my family then hitting the office every day no matter what I was doing, especially if money was no longer a concern.

As an avid Apple fan though, I do wish both Dropbox and Waze would sell out!


A billion wasn't on the table. Nor would one person get that 1 billion anyway. I agree that it would be very nice to not (have to) work - but some people enjoy those challenges and growing a company.

That being said - why can't you just enjoy waze and dropbox "as is" - why do you wish they would sell out. What difference is it really. Both companies have great products.
Rating: 4 Votes
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TuffLuffJimmy
88 months ago

How is something like Waze worth even close to $400 million???

When Instagram, an unoriginal and incredibly reproducible app, goes for nearly a billion dollars Waze should go for trillions. Waze is easily the best navigation app for people in cities or towns with enough people to help with information. Even when out of a zone with a lot of users it is still a very effective navigation app.

Apple still thinks there are 2 Wal-Marts in Mooresville...

I've reported it a few times already. :(

It is interesting how inconsistent Apple has been with fixing their maps. On the first day maps came out I reported an issue with the location of my work (it was also wrong on Google Maps and I reported it to Google, too) Apple fixed it by the next day and Google still has yet to fix it. Strange.

Stupid name (and logo), stupid app, stupid company. I had never even heard of them until this post. There are so many other options for this completely unoriginal app, business.

Even $400 mil. is too much. Apple better not pull a Facebook like Instagram purchase. Apple should completely abandon the idea and then Waze will eventually fade away into nothing and be forgotten when they go out of business. $750 mil.!?! Idiots...

What are you raving about? So what if you haven't heard of Waze. It's possibly the most useful nav app in the store.


Unsure exactly how they make there money... But I am assuming it's selling their data that users submit. So traffic patterns etc... Sustainability if waze becomes very popular is very unlikely but currently I think they support their self through the above.

Can't argue about the driver distracted thing. The only thing in have to say is if you have a vehicle mount its not so bad but everyone grabbing their phone to report stuff can be bad. Otherwise it works automatically if you are in traffic or giving you directions(via voice). So guess if you can have some self control then it works the same as the Tom Tom you paid for.

Also I don't have a Tom Tom but I do have a garmin and it still routes everyone to the back of my house trying to take them down a service road which is unpassable in a large vehicle. Waze will take you to the front door and after years garmin and Google will still send you down the wrong road.

Maybe if you had actually used the app you would know about the steps they take to prevent distracted driving: voice commands, waving gestures, passenger acknowledgement, etc.
Rating: 2 Votes

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