Investment News: Money Morning

From Staff Reports

Nokia Corporation (NOK), the largest cell phone maker in the world, announced yesterday (Monday) that it plans to buy Chicago-based Navteq (NVT), a leading digital mapmaker, for about $8.1 billion.

The proposed deal at $78 a share would be Finland-based Nokia’s biggest purchase, and it follows the heels of Nokia’s acquisition of mobile-advertiser Enpocket. The Navteq purchase is a clear shot at Apple Inc. (AAPL), whose iPhone comes equipped with mapping and navigation provided by Google Inc. (GOOG). It also puts pressure on GPS-system-maker Garmin Ltd. (GRMN), the high-flier whose shares were pounded by investors who were disappointed it wasn’t a bidder for Navteq.

Navteq provides digital map information for automobile navigation systems, mobile phones and devices and Web sites. It also owns Traffic.com, an interactive Web site that gives users up-to-the-minute traffic information in their area. Last year, the company pocketed revenues of $582 million, according to Nokia’s press release.

"Location-based services are one of the cornerstones of Nokia’s Internet services strategy. The acquisition of NAVTEQ is another step toward Nokia becoming a leading player in this space," Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s president and CEO said in a statement. "By joining forces with Navteq, we will be able to bring context and geographical information to a number of our Internet services with accelerated time to market. We also look forward to maintaining and enhancing the services and support provided to Navteq’s existing and future customers."

The deal has yet to be approved by U.S. regulators and Navteq shareholders. It isn’t expected to be finalized until early 2008.

Jim Rogers: China’s Expansion Depends on Water

Oil isn’t China’s most precious resource. China must spend $162 billion in the next five years to clean up its polluted rivers-as nearly 40% of them are undrinkable. "China has a huge water problem," Legendary investor Jim Rogers says. "…If they don’t solve it, or if they don’t solve it in time, then China has failed." Find out which six global water treatment powerhouses are set to make “liquid profits.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 2:20 pm and is filed under GPS, Stocks, Technology, Telecommunications, Top News, Wall Street. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Due to the amount of comments we receive Money Morning will not be able to respond to all questions. If you have not already registered to leave a comment, once doing so you will receive Money Morning's Daily Email. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.