AND Forming a Global Mapping Alliance to Compete with NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas

AND Chief Executive Maarten Oldenhof just returned from China and shared details of a planned alliance between AND, a Chinese and a Lebanese mapping company should be completed within two years. Odenhof did not name the companies, nor rule out other partners may be involved. The plan: join together to compete with NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas in the built-in car systems and smartphones markets.

Whether AND disappears or becomes the new company is unclear. It’s stock was up 11% on the news, but analysts suggest the impact on NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas may be minimal, save lowering prices a bit. AND is flying high this year with stock prices almost tripling on news of an unnamed US company contract to use its Western Europe maps.

- Reuters