Google Buys Waze Traffic App for Better Traffic Data in Maps
Google has made it official: it's now the proud owner of Waze, the popular mobile mapping service. Rumors about Google's interest and the impending deal have been surfacing for a while now.
Other rumors talked about interest from Facebook as well.
But it seems that Google won in the end. The company doesn't provide any financial specifics, but rumored figures were around $1.3 billion (€979 million).
"Imagine if you could see real-time traffic updates from friends and fellow travelers ahead of you, calling out 'fender bender...totally stuck in left lane!' and showing faster routes that others are taking," Google wrote.
"To help you outsmart traffic, today we’re excited to announce we’ve closed the acquisition of Waze. This fast-growing community of traffic-obsessed drivers is working together to find the best routes from home to work, every day," it announced.
Google doesn't plan on doing much to change Waze. In fact, for the time being, the Waze team is staying put, in Israel, and will continue to operate as before.
But the plan is to incorporate some of Waze's features into Google Maps, which is why Google acquired it in the first place.
Via: Google Buys Waze Traffic App for Better Traffic Data in Maps