SHARE

Google to Acquire Waze for $1.3B: Report

Google is making a billion dollar bet on social navigation, opening a new front in the battle for mobile users. The search and online advertising giant is close to acquiring Waze, an Israel-based crowdsourced navigation startup, according to a June 9 report in The Globes. Google is expected to spend $1.3 billion to seal the […]

Written By

Pedro Hernandez

Jun 10, 2013

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

Google is making a billion dollar bet on social navigation, opening a new front in the battle for mobile users.

The search and online advertising giant is close to acquiring Waze, an Israel-based crowdsourced navigation startup, according to a June 9 report in The Globes. Google is expected to spend $1.3 billion to seal the deal, indicated sources.

Waze offers a free turn-by-turn, social-enabled navigation app for Apple iOS and Google Android. The company, whose aim is to help its users “outsmart traffic,” relies on real-time crowdsourced intelligence to alert drivers to traffic jams, road hazards and accidents.

A community of Waze map editors Waze helps users avoid routing mishaps due to outdated maps. According to the company, it’s a social-powered capability is already proving its worth.

In a June 7 blog post, the company discussed how the Waze community was able to quickly update its maps in the wake of the I-5 bridge collapse in the state of Washington and the recent Oklahoma tornado.

Within minutes of the bridge collapse, Waze map editor and country manager Alan Akins went to work. “Before the day was done, the Waze map had been updated and Wazers were being routed around the collapsed bridge,” blogged the company.

In Oklahoma, fellow map editor Jared Peacock updated Waze to help drivers safely negotiate the devastated areas. Waze explained that “he manipulated the unsafe roads on the Waze map editor so that people driving through the city would be routed around them, but also so that first responders and people living in the area could be routed on the perilous roads.”

Additionally, the app can be used to coordinate group travel plans via Facebook. Waze also promotes savings by delivering efficient, gridlock-avoiding routes and displaying user-gathered gas prices.

Google wasn’t the only tech giant with its eyes on Waze.

“Last year there were reports Apple wanted to buy Waze and in late August 2012, it was reported that Facebook was in talks to acquire the company. According to some reports, Facebook representatives arrived in Israel to meet Waze executives, but no deal was reached in the negotiations, apparently because of the price tag,” wrote Hagai Golan and Tzahi Hoffman in their report.

Apple was also said to have expressed an interest in the company, however CEO Tim Cook asserted during the D11 conference in May that his company had not placed a bid for the startup.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality

FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
Top 10 AIOps Companies

FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
What is Text Analysis?

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
Finding a Career Path in AI

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020

SEE ALL
APPLICATIONS ARTICLES

Pedro Hernandez

Pedro Hernandez is a contributor to Datamation, eWEEK, and the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Previously, he served as a managing editor for the Internet.com network of IT-related websites and as the Green IT curator for GigaOM Pro.

Google to Acquire Waze for $1.3B: Report

Pedro Hernandez

Recommended for you...

Company

Categories

Google to Acquire Waze for $1.3B: Report

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Pedro Hernandez

Recommended for you...

Company

Categories