After a last-minute bid to snatch GPS map info provider Tele Atlas (AMS:TA) from competitor TomTom (AMS: TOM2), Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) has dropped out of the bidding, according to Bloomberg. The company had jumped TomTom's friendly takeover offer of under $30 a share with a bid of $35.48. TomTom then responded with a jump to $43.44, or $4.2 billion, an 81% premium on the stock at that time.This was apparently too rich for Garmin's blood. With Tele Atlas, a premier vendor of GPS map data, in its fold, look for TomTom to expand its family of GPS-specific devices as well as licensing the data for other technologies such as cell phones. Since TomTom was already a Tele Atlas customer, that portion of its expenses will now remain in-house, as well.
Tele Atlas is one of only two large providers of this data. The other, Navteq, was recently purchased for $8.1 billion by Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Garmin, a Navteq customer, just extended its contract with that company for another six years.
The deal would have made sense for either company, but the question is, at what cost? Perhaps the fact that both TomTom and Tele Atlas are based in Europe will help them streamline operations and thereby justify the expense. With the pace of evolution in this market, though, the time frame to leverage the purchase is not long.
