Talks between Nokia and a group of German car makers hoping to acquire the former’s Here mapping unit have reached a stand-off over the price and structure of the deal.
This is according to a report by Reuters on Wednesday, which cited unnamed sources claiming that the group composed of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen are in a stronger position to negotiate because interest in Here from rival bidders, including taxi-booking app maker Uber, has cooled.
"Talks have not broken down, but they are at a delicate stage of brinkmanship," said one of the sources, in Wednesday’s Reuters report.
In addition to Uber and the car companies, Facebook was said at one time to have shown interest in buying Here, as were Chinese Internet giants Tencent and Baidu.
Nokia launched a strategic review of Here in mid-April, the same day it agreed to acquire rival network vendor Alcatel-Lucent in a deal worth €15.6 billion.
Four out of five in-car navigation systems in Europe and North America use Nokia’s Here technology, and in 2014, 13 million cars were sold with Here maps on board. Nonetheless, Nokia wants to sell the mapping business so that it can focus on its network division.
