14 DAY TRIAL // As we reported last month, it looks like many of the big companies have now dropped out of the race for Nokia's HERE acquisition.
The reason seems to be the fact that the Finnish company has a preferred bidder and a high asking price. The New York Times now reports that Uber, the company that previously submitted a $3 billion (€2.73 billion) offer for HERE, has now withdrawn from the bidding.
Uber has recently acquired some of Microsoft's Bing assets and absorbed around 100 engineers from the Redmond-based company.
The acquisition's details have remained private for the moment, but Uber might have paid a lot less on Bing than what it might have had to pay for Nokia's HERE maps.
With Uber now out of the running to acquire HERE, negotiations for the mapping service have focused on a potential deal between the Finnish company and a consortium of car makers, which includes BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz.
The sale of Nokia HERE mapping service could still fall
The interest of other bidders like Baidu and Tencent seemed to have waned since many high-profile companies decided to withdraw from the bidding due to the high price that Nokia is asking for its maps division.
According to three people who would only speak on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are private, the German consortium is now the only entity negotiating Nokia's HERE acquisition for which the Finnish company is asking no less than $4 billion (€3.63).
However, the automakers think they can acquire HERE for less than the asking price, people with knowledge of the talks claim.
Due to these negotiations, a deal announcement might be announced as early as August, but there's still a chance that the sale of Nokia's mapping business could fall.
Moreover, Uber and other potential buyers could jump back in at the last minute if they find other partners willing to pay as much as $4 billion (€3.63).