Facebook is in talks to acquire Israeli mobile satellite navigation start-up Waze for US$800m to US$1bn, according to the business daily Calcalist.
The newspaper said due diligence is under way and that talks over the acquisition began six months ago. Neither company commented on the report.
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Waze uses satellite signals from smartphones to generate maps and traffic data, sharing this with other users, offering real time traffic information.
Waze and Facebook partnered in October 2012 when the Israeli company released its updated version that allows users to share their drive with Facebook friends.
Calcalist would be Facebook’s third acquisition in Israel. It bought Snaptu in 2011 for US$70m and Face.com in 2012 for US$60m.
In the last year, Waze tripled its user base to 45m and, in March, 1.5m users downloaded the free mobile navigation app.
