Dec 07/Jan/08

Multimap, probably Britain's best-known online mapping business, has been bought up by Microsoft. The price paid fort the company has not been published; commentators variously value it between £25 million and £50 million, pointing out that its turnover is around £12 million.

Reports suggest that the company will continue to operate under its present identity, fitting into the Microsoft empire within its Virtual Earth and Search departments. The move is seen as a bid by Microsoft to ratchet up its competition with Google Maps and Google Earth. It has had some success with its Windows Live Maps service, but this still lags a long way behind their estimated combined total of 100 million unique visitors a month. Multimap could add nearly 5 million to the Microsoft total, according to figures from Nielsen NetRatings.

Multimap is Britain's leading commercial provider of online mapping, and also offers a very high-profile (and free) consumer lookup service. It was founded in the mid-1990s by Sean Phelan, who was still the majority shareholder.

Multimap added Microsoft's MapPoint Web Service to its portfolio back in 2004.