Dec 07/Jan/08

In a nerve-jangling on-off bidding war, the deal by satellite navigation provider TomTom to acquire Tele Atlas, the digital mapping specialist, looked like foundering in October when rival satnav company Garmin put in a counter-bid, saying it was valuing the company higher than TomTom.

Garmin tabled an offer valuing Tel Atlas at 24.50 euros per share, compared with TomTom's original offer valuing it at 21.25 euros.

Then in an abrupt about-turn, Garmin withdrew its counter-offer, and TomTom became the expected buyer again. Meanwhile, TomTom has extended the acceptance date for Tele Atlas shareholders to 31 March 2008.

It appears that Garmin was concerned that it might have difficult obtaining map data for its satnav systems in future if TomTom acquired Tele Atlas. The acquisition of rival map producer Navteq by Nokia added a further imponderable to the situation.

 

However, in November Garmin revealed that it had negotiated a six-year extension of an existing agreement to use Navteq data, securing that source of map data through to 2015. It says it already used Navteq data for four out of five of its products.

In the light of this development, Garmin said it had withdrawn its offer for Tele Atlas. Garmin describes the deal with Navteq as 'a win-win situation' for both companies.

In a separate development announced during all this, Garmin said it had reached what it called 'a confidential global settlement' of a dispute with TomTom over intellectual property, which had meant pending litigation in the UK, Netherlands, Wisconsin and Texas. Details of their agreement have not been revealed.