According to fresh information, Uber has already made a bid

May 8, 2015 06:40 GMT  ·  By

There’s been a lot of fuss lately revolving around Nokia’s HERE Maps business, which the company is reportedly looking to sell. We've been telling you that important names in the industry like Apple, Facebook and a German car consortium are looking into the possibility of acquiring the business from Nokia.

Nokia HERE is one of the three units remaining under Nokia’s wing after the Finnish company sold its smartphone business to Microsoft for $72 / €64 billion in April last year.

Now, a new report coming out of the New York Times indicates that taxi-booking smartphone application Uber has already submitted a bid. And it’s not the first time we’re hearing that Uber might be interested in purchasing Nokia HERE Maps.

Uber already made its bid

Sources familiar with the matter claim that Uber offered as much as $3 / €2.68 billion, in an attempt to secure the deal with the Finnish company.

Uber is competing here with a consortium of German automakers, which includes renowned names from the industry like BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The automakers have reportedly teamed up with Chinese search engine Baidu to make the offer.

Nokia’s mapping business is an impressive affair, holding patronage over 80% of the global market for built-in car navigation systems. The division is spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year in order to update the application and add as many features as possible.

HERE is based in Berlin and employs more than 6,000 people who make sure the services run smoothly.

Uber wants to break away from Google

Until now, Uber relied on Google Maps, Apple Maps and other technologies to help match and guide Uber drivers and riders. However, the company has been looking to make some changes, especially to renounce the dependence it has on the Mountain View-based giant, as until now it has been backed by Google’s venture capital arm (in part).

With this in mind, Uber purchased deCarta, a mapping company with a decent history, and it also hired a bunch of mapping software engineers for its taxi-booking app.

But getting their hands on HERE Maps is not going to be an easy task, it seems. The automobile consortium is also pretty interested in making the purchase, as they are looking to use HERE in order to run autonomous cars that drive through the city with limited human interaction.

Apple might also be ruining things for Uber. A few weeks ago, we told you that the Cupertino tech giant might be looking into purchasing HERE. After all, Apple Maps didn't really take off and Nokia’s mapping unit might help Cupertino move things in the right direction.