Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has acquired Waze, the Israeli startup that provides the popular community-powered navigation app for smartphones.
The amount of the transaction, reportedly amounting to $1.3BN, was not confirmed.
According to a post by Brian McClendon, Google’s Vice President, Geo, the Waze product development team will remain in Israel.
“We’re excited about the prospect of enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhancing Waze with Google’s search capabilities“, he said.
In the announcement post, CEO and founder Noam Bardin said: “Nothing practical will change here at Waze. We will maintain our community, brand, service and organization – the community hierarchy, responsibilities and processes will remain the same. The same Waze people will continue to collaborate with you, and we will continue to innovate our product and services, making them more social, functional and helpful for everyday drivers. Our employees, managers, founders and I are all committed to our vision for many years to come.”
Co-founded by Bardin, Uri Levine, President, Ehud Shabtai, CTO, and Amir Shinar, VP R&D, Waze has developed a free traffic and navigation app, powered by a large community of drivers who contribute info and report events such as accidents, police traps, or hazards along the way to fight traffic, and save time and gas money.
The app has been translated in over 25 languages and is available on the iPhone Appstore and Google Play.
Investors in the company included Blue Run Ventures, Magma, Vertex, Qualcomm Ventures, Horizons Ventures Hong Kong, the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Digital Growth Fund and iFund.
FinSMEs
11/06/2013
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