Mapping startups don't come cheap.
Google disclosed Thursday how much it paid for the Israel-based company behind the mapping app Waze: a whopping sum of $966 million.
This price is in a financial quarterly report that Google filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday. Apparently, the Web giant spent $847 million in goodwill, $188 million in intangible assets, and then minus $69 million in net liabilities. It was previously speculated that Google paid a little more than $1 billion for Waze.
"In June 2013, we completed our acquisition of Waze Limited (Waze), a provider of a mobile map application which provides turn-by-turn navigation and real-time traffic updates powered by incidents and route information submitted by a community of users, for a total cash consideration of $966 million," Google wrote in the filing. "The acquisition is expected to enhance our customer's user experience by offering real time traffic information to users' daily navigation needs."
Google snapped up Waze six weeks ago after earlier reports that both Facebook and Apple were also interested in the app. The way Waze works is it leverages a community of drivers to find the best routes through traffic. When the startup joined Google's ranks, rather than moving toward an IPO, it said it wanted to keep attention focused on its community of drivers.
In addition to spending $966 million on Waze, Google also completed 15 other acquisitions in the first half of 2013, including buying Makani Power, Behavio, and Wavii. For these other acquisitions, the Web giant spent $344 million. The tally for all 16 of the acquisitions, which includes Waze, comes to $1.31 billion.
Via AllThingsD.
