Garmin bids for Tele Atlas

I wonder how this would affect Garmin's reputation as the Primo GPS maker if they start using maps which are generally considered a less accurate mapping product than NavTeq ?

I had sort of hoped they would up the bid ante for NavTeq instead.

Tim

Garmin seems to be a company on top of their game, but I get the feeling they received a HUGE wake up call when Nokia snapped up Navteq. I suspect the WinTel based computer manufacturers would be nervous if Apple suddenly owned Intel.

I just hope they don't discontinue their service like many other competitiions out there that already have. I have a friend that purchased a unit for their car and a year later the company went out of business. He's stuck with the unit with an out of date map. Too bad...

I can't believe that the new owner of NasTeq would want to loose the Garmin account. The public will certainly become educated to the fact that TeleAtlas is not a substitute for the quality that has become the minimum standard for this service.
Maybe Garmin has the resources to upgrade TelAtlas to a level that is competitive.

Garmin needs to have control of mapping data or they would be at the mercy of another company. If the mapping data is owned by another GPS rival they could be shut out of access to that data. If I was Garmin and didn't control a map I would wake every night in a sweat. At best their profits could be greatly diminished, at worst they could be run out of business.

go to this link to see what is going on with the garmin bid for Tele Atlas... http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/10/garmin_makes_cash_offer_f...

I edited the post above to keep ourselves safe from copyright laws. Please remember to post links to articles instead of the articles themselves;)

Miss Poi

There is something called "fair use" and it does cover you are worried about.

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

1-the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2-the nature of the copyrighted work;
3-the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4-the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Wouldn't POI Factory's Terms of Use cover this:
"You agree that you will not: (ii) submit material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant POI Factory all of the license rights granted herein"

RT

The GPSmagazine.com article really has nothing different than the Money.com article except for some specific dates, but I did notice that the grammar usage is incredibly poor for a professional publication. Must be the old journalist in me, but when I see "it's" instead of "its", or "This is a strategic move for Garmin that make a whole lot of sense" instead of "for Gramin that makes a...", I cringe.

On the original topic of Garmin's bid for Tele Atlas, I know the staffers at Garmin are really excited about the possible acquisition.

If Garmin owns TeleAtlas then what will be happen to the next map update? I bought Garmin with 2 things in mind are: Navteq and Garmin UI. I believed the Navteq map is more accurate than the TeleAtlas. You can see that how much Navteq company worth than TeleAtlas.

I can't help but speculate that there had been some bad blood recently between Garmin & Navteq anyway due to the upgrade policy on the map products.

The change that NavTeq shoved down Garmin's throat about owners not being able to update TWO units instead of one, and also the time frame in order to allow a Free upgrade was one which was very unpopular with Garmin's customers.

Everyone said it was out of Garmin's control and perhaps Garmin did not care for the change of policy from NavTeq.

So they now get a chance to shove it to NavTeq by purchasing a competing map maker.

Of course, I'm sure it's still based on an intellegent strategy made by Garmin, but it still may have a hint of sweet revenge.

Tim

Tele Atlas gives Tom Tom 5 days to match Garmin's offer.
For those of you that haven't heard, Garmin wants to buy TeleAtlas.

I don't understand how Nokia could shut Garmin out. If they tried to even hike the price, wouldn't that raise antitrust issues, both in U.S. and EU?

Tom Tom raised their bid to buy Tele Atlas.

What will Garmin's next move be?

If the bidding war continued like this and let say Garmin won then the cost will passdown to customers. That will be expensive for consumer.

We don't know what percentage of their present mapping expense is passed on to the customer ... could be cheaper???

RT

Click on the link to read more about TeleAtlas: ARTICLE

ML