Bloomberg has reported that another contender is entering the bidding war for Nokia’s Oyj’s map business.
Baidu, a China based search engine company has joined with Uber, San Francisco based transportation network company that is disrupting taxi services around the globe, to avoid regulatory scrutiny, along with Apax Partners, according to the latest from Bloomberg. As reported by Winbeta, Baidu has previously partnered with Nokia HERE Maps to bring their international mapping software to Baidu map users when they travel from China.
Other competitors in the bidding war are a group comprised of China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd., NavInfo Co. and EQT Partners AB; Hellman & Friedman; Silver Lake Management; Thoma Bravo; and a consortium of the German auto manufactures Audi AG, BMW AG, and Diamler AG.
Microsoft also appears to still be in play with an offer to acquire a minority stake in HERE Maps.
Bidding will continue with another round expected in the next two weeks and the Bloomberg report also states unidentified sources think it may reach as much as $4 billion.
