Google set to acquire Waze for $1.3B

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000850934&fid=1725

by calanya • 13 years ago

142 59 13 years ago

globes.co.il

beagle3• 13 years ago

Latest available source code is for v2.4 here http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Source_code - newer versions are not free software.

Map was never free data - I think they started with OSM, but later switched to a proprietary data source (and of course, they are crowdsourcing more data and updates from users)

cormullion• 13 years ago

I'm not sure they even started with OSM. I remember in the very early days I could select the 'bulldozer' icon and add new roads to the maps. People used to ask why the maps weren't as good as OSMs, but the maps got better very quickly because - I suppose - everybody's journeys were added to the maps.

salimmadjd2• 13 years ago

What I trust even less than NSA and US intelligence is Israel's. We will have even less control on which entity or agency will have access to, what places or whom I'm visiting.

nadav• 13 years ago

Salim, let me guess. You don't have a problem with all Israelis, only with the Israeli jews.

enraged_camel• 13 years ago

Stay classy.

itsadok2• 13 years ago

He didn't say he had a problem with Israelis at all. Just the Israel Government. Many Israelis share that sentiment: http://2jk.org/praxis/?p=4769

Google translation: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&n...

vxNsr3• 13 years ago

You do realize that Waze has always been an Israeli company, and you probably also know that nearly every major tech company (Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Intel, Apple, HP, etc) has an office in Israel that makes major contributions to their products.

esrauch• 13 years ago

Not trusting Israel has as much to do with hating Jews as not trusting the Vatican has to do with hating Catholics.

Google is significantly less under the thumb of the Israeli government than any Israeli company is. If push came to shove Google could close their Tel Aviv operations rather than comply. They couldn't do the same with the US government and any Israeli company couldn't do the same with the Israeli government.

eliben• 13 years ago

You know why your comment reeks of politics? Because technically it doesn't make any sense.

If you're a user of Waze now, if anything then the situation can improve for you. Now being a purely Israeli company Waze is surely more susceptible to Israel intelligence agencies tracking than as part of Google. Yes, it will likely become more susceptible to U.S. intelligence agencies now, but this is not what your comment was about.

ihsw• 13 years ago

Why would you trust any more than any other? They have access to each-other's intel infrastructure as a matter of official policy.

ysapir• 13 years ago

Every company operating in every country is bound to that country's laws. So Google in China has to accept the Chinese government demands, and Google Maps in Israel already cooperates with security restrictions in Israel, just like Waze probably cooperates with the NSA for its Palo Alto office.

However, Waze using a dynamic map is able to provide mapping for the West Bank as well. While Google opened up its navigation app a few months ago in Israel, it has not been opened for the West Bank (possibly because of map licensing restrictions that similarly prevented opening it for Israel for so long).

Tloewald• 13 years ago

Presumably this is defense against Apple (or Samsung) getting it.

jonknee• 13 years ago

While adding to Google's impressive collection of mapping data. Google has and will continue to make a lot of acquisitions in this space.

dragonwriter• 13 years ago

Google was, IIRC, the second widely reported suitor after Facebook; I don't see that there's much reason to see it as defensive rather than an acquisition to enhance a major existing offering -- AFAICT, lots of people that preferred Google Maps prior to Waze shifted to Waze, at least for at-the-moment navigation, due to Waze's social features which resulted in better realtime traffic and routing.

technoslut• 13 years ago

Google Maps is the best as much for its maps acquisitions as it is the work they put into it.

If they do acquire it, it will because they see a use for Waze talent and tech.

nudded• 13 years ago

I think Tim Cook answered on his D11 interview that they did not make an offer for Waze.

nlh• 13 years ago

Interesting development (if it's true - as we all learn, deals have a way if changing a LOT at the last minute).

I'd thought a FB acquisition would have been very important for FB -- it would have given them user-provided location info down to the foot for 50M people, which seems to me right up FB's alley (Where are you? Where are your friends? Where are you going? Where are they going?).

For Google, this will obviously cement their domination in the mapping space. As it is, they're so vastly far ahead than others (I think I heard from a friend who works there that they have 10,000+ people on the Maps team worldwide?)

Either way, Waze is awesome and despite the cynicism around what the big guys sometimes do, I can only imagine this making the app better and better.

hayksaakian• 13 years ago

Its hard to imagine Google supporting two distinct mapping apps.

gamble• 13 years ago

I'm sure the app will last about as long as Sparrow.

thedrbrian• 13 years ago

And if people start using it a lot but google cant insert ads they'll shut it down ala good reader.

acchow2• 13 years ago

10000 people on Maps doesn't sound right. There are about 35k Googlers (excluding Motorola). 1/3rd on Maps? Implausible.

sa1f• 13 years ago

Maybe only a small portion who are actual developers. Most others might be third-party contractors, fixing map errors, street-view and such.

ngoel36• 13 years ago

Google has 35k engineers, out of which maybe 2-3k work on Maps. The 10k number probably refers to total number of workers (mostly contractors) that contribute to Maps: Street View, testing, imagery, notation, etc.

fakeer• 13 years ago

The entire Google Bangalore is about Maps it seems. Anyone here to comment on this?

typeduck• 13 years ago

I was really looking forward for Waze's Windows Phone app[1] to come out of beta, but now, given Google's stance on Windows Phone, the app will most likely be killed :/ Atleast with an FB acquisition, it wouldn't have happened. These platform wars getting tiring.

[1] http://betanews.com/2013/04/30/waze-seeks-beta-testers-for-w...

vxNsr3• 13 years ago

NOOOOOOOOooooooooo!!!!

This is a competitor to google's maps, the only thing they'd do is shut it down (or at least not make anymore updates, ah-la sparrow) and not integrate the ideas into Gmaps.

From the founders standpoint this makes total sense, though, it's obvious this was the end game because they had no money-making business model.

ronreiter• 13 years ago

Don't worry, Google isn't that type of company. You won't even feel it.

polarix• 13 years ago

Uh, hah? Haha?

gcb0• 13 years ago

actually, as user of google Navigator, i'm dreading the moment waze will show up as a replacement for navigator (as hangouts now replaces gtalk) and I will not be able to get directions without a google+ account and publishing my location to my friends all the time.

mcmire• 13 years ago

Yeah, I'm bummed to hear this news too, I've been rooting for them since the beginning. Granted Google Maps is way better than Waze, but, I think the whole crowdsourcing angle that Waze takes is interesting, and I think it's impressive how far they've gotten with a small team comparatively.

tyang3• 13 years ago

Great for me as a Google shareholder. Bad as an Angeleno fighting SoCal traffic.

No GPS/maps system seems to offer the option for FasTrak or carpool lane.

No GPS/maps system offers a way to tell a driver in a carpool lane if they have to change several lanes to the right to merge onto another freeway, or if there is a new carpool lane opening up to your left that takes you directly onto the next freeway you way to get on.

This is what happens when you have an oligopoly (Garmin, Google/Waze, Apple) and everyone's product, design and sales people are in the Valley or Tel Aviv and not more driver-centric cities with much more traffic and orders of magnitude more route options like Los Angeles.

zwily• 13 years ago

For several years I've been thinking that HOV lane smarts are the next thing Google would add. :/

smok• 13 years ago

I was in LA last week (vacation + rental car) and Google Maps definitely sent me to the express lanes on the I95 every time. They had the exact knowledge of the entrances and merges back.

As an aside, yesterday I was traveling upstate NY and to get off from I87 to some local road, Google Maps navigated me to a "Tandem Area", which was also marked that way by a sign and was indeed the right choice. Of course, I'd never turn myself from a highway to a Tandem Area ;)

So it seems like they have a lot of small detail knowledge.

rogerbinns• 13 years ago

About a year ago I used Google Android navigation to get to a Walmart. Unlike other GPS which just take you to a street address, the Google system knew the Walmart was in a large lot and navigated me to the store within the lot.

raldi• 13 years ago

I95 is 3000 miles from LA.

ddw• 13 years ago

Sounds like you've got a great idea for an app. There's got to be enough people driving in the L.A. area to be make it worth it, right?

tyang3• 13 years ago

Thanks ddw! Another HN user pointed out in the comments here that TomTom has carpool lane option. And I'd be another passionate founder who can't program or do development.

bschlinker• 13 years ago

TomTom includes carpool lanes in their planning for routes in the United States. I've seen it in California and Connecticut. A big red screen shows up and asks "Route uses carpool lanes -- is this ok?". If I am driving alone, then I just hit "No".

tyang3• 13 years ago

Wow, thanks! Going on Amazon to buy.

atirip• 13 years ago

For me the most interesting in this case is why nobody else wasn't interested enough, 1.3B is not that much of a money for other possible acquiree candidates to withdraw.

Peaker• 13 years ago

Facebook wanted to pull the Waze development center from Israel to the Valley. Waze's founder rejected this and demanded that the development will stay in Israel. This is why the deal with Facebook failed.

The deal with Google supposedly has a clause that for the next 3 years, Waze development will stay in Israel.

slacka• 13 years ago

I love the idea of crowdsourcing your speed to generate real-time traffic information. The other crowdsourcing features this brings don't seem very useful to me. Also, not sure this is worth $1.3B. Seems like another groupon or summly.

techaddict009• 13 years ago

Now this is really an interesting news. First facebook was trying hard to acquire it (http://mashable.com/2013/05/09/facebook-waze-1-billion/) and now google is all set to acquire it. Hope whosoever acquires it makes better use of it.

badclient• 13 years ago

Can someone with deep knowledge about Waze or the market explain why it would be worth $1.3B? It seems to have okay but far from insane traction. The technology seems less than trivial but at google scale shouldn't be that hard to develop in house. Once developed, it can simply be built into Google Maps and get overnight traction. As such, using Waze to me seems like a hack anyway.

kamkazemoose• 13 years ago

Maybe Waze has certain patents that Google thinks are worth a lot?

ajju• 13 years ago

It's not (just) about acquiring new technology or users. It's about blocking competitors (Apple, Facebook, Microsoft) from getting as good as them, or better, at maps and navigation.

nivertech• 13 years ago

I attended lecture by one of founders of Waze. If i'm not mistaken he said their pitch deck had only 1 slide, something like:

Nokia bought Navteq for $6B. Our users create map data for free.

arindone• 13 years ago

I'm surprised not many people are pointing out the antitrust concerns here...There are a few competitors in the space, but there may be a strong case that Google is essentially buying out that Waze's capabilities and niche are only rivaled by that of Google.

danielcampos93• 13 years ago

I would be very curious to see what google does with waze an integrating it to maps. I think it would have been much more interesting to see what Facebook would have done with it

laacz• 13 years ago

As waze is not true competitor for google per se, I would be very dissapointed, if it would go the way other google-acquired software often goes - integration into google services and product's discontinuation.

I do not believe (anymore) that google could acquire Waze and leave it as a standalone product. Which would mean lots of compromises in terms of community interaction because google has different approach to this than Waze does.

Even more - waze approach to handling UGC in terms of map editing is somewhat not perfect, but with google involvement it could be discarded (not fixed), since it's not trivial to come up with better way.

Google, i believe, is more interested in traffic data than in community map editing, but latter one gives Waze lots of its appeal.

Google set to acquire Waze for $1.3B

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