Deal

EU approves Nokia's takeover of Navteq

The European Union on Wednesday approved Finnish mobile-phone giant Nokia's takeover of US digital mapmaker Navteq, saying that the deal would not harm competition in Europe.

Navteq is one of two global companies which produce navigable digital map databases covering the whole of Europe and North America for commercial GPS satellite-navigation systems. The other main player is Tele Atlas of the Netherlands.

On October 1, 2007, Nokia, which offers GPS navigation services on its more sophisticated phones, bid to buy Navteq.

The EU's executive, the European Commission, said that it was concerned that the proposed deal could allow the merged company to make it harder for Nokia rivals to buy Navteq maps.

However, an in-depth investigation showed that those worries were not grounded, a statement from the commission said.

Firstly, since Tele Atlas also produces digital maps, commission experts concluded that it would be unlikely that a Nokia-Navteq marriage would try and raise Navteq prices, since this would simply drive potential clients to Tele Atlas.

Secondly, the experts decided that even if the merged company did try to make it harder for rivals to get Navteq maps, this would not encourage consumers to buy Nokia phones.

'As a result, the commission concluded that the proposed concentration would not raise any concerns,' the statement said.

On May 14 the commission gave a similar green light to Dutch GPS set maker TomTom to buy Tele Atlas.

(Published by M&C - july 2, 2008)