Wednesday, December 20. 2006

NAVTEQ Becoming a Pure Play in Data?

Yesterday NAVIGON (of whom I'd not heard) acquired NAVTEQ's navigation software business. NAVIGON, based in Germany makes the software found in products from Sony, Delphi, Fujitsu-Siemens, and others. They are the "intel inside" of those household names. NAVTEQ and NAVIGON have long term ties including execs moving from one to the other. And, they both like to spell their names IN ALL CAPS.

Ed Marcheselli, Director, Software, for NAVTEQ put the sale in context:

After careful evaluation, we determined NAVIGON was in a better position to support and further develop the navigation software business based upon the company's established automotive relationships and proven ability to deliver and support quality products for a diverse customer base.

NAVTEQ's been on the acquistion path of late - scooping up data companies like Traffic.com and the Map Company in recent weeks. Shedding its navigation software shop (I didn't know it had one!) suggests to me its planning to be a pure play data company - focussing on data capture, update, productization and delivery.