Google Also Looking Forward To Buy Waze

From about a month ago we reported to you that Facebook is in talk with Waze team to buy the app from them for $1 billion and since this date we haven’t heard anything from Facebook. Today we’ve got some news from the folks at Bloomberg reporting that a number of tech companies have approached the Waze team over a possible buyout deal, including Google, meaning a bidding war could be afoot…

“Google Inc. (GOOG), maker of the Android operating system, is considering buying map-software provider Waze Inc., setting up a possible bidding war with Facebook Inc., people familiar with the matter said.
Waze is fielding expressions of interest from multiple parties and is seeking more than $1 billion, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The Palo Alto, California-based startup might also remain independent, instead seeking to raise a round of venture capital financing, the people said.”

As you can see from the above report, Waze is fielding offers in the $1 billion range, and this is a good number especially tech companies like Facebook and Google in a need for a great maps app like Waze.

For those who haven’t heard about Waze, it is the most popular GPS map app that you could ever use and it is available for many countries. From a month ago Waze announced that over 30 million users actively reporting traffic updates, newly discovered shortcut routes, and other useful details that it says can help commuters “outsmart traffic.”

Oddly enough, Apple was at one time also rumored to be considering a Waze buyout, but Bloomberg says it has not been a part of these recent talks. As many of you know, Apple uses some of Waze’s mapping data in its own iOS Maps app.