TomTom Ups Bid For Tele Atlas; Valued At $3.57 Billion

TomTom has upped its bid for digital map maker Tele Atlas in response to Garmin’s bid last week. The new bid by TomTom values Tele Atlas at 2.9 billion euro ($3.57 billion), a shade over Garmin’s offer which valued the company at $3.3 billion, and 41 percent higher than its earlier bid in July reports WSJ. A spokesperson for Garmin said it was reviewing its options, but investors are betting Garmin will come back with a counter-offer and the share prices rose 7 percent above TomTom’s bid. With Nokia buying Navteq Garmin faces the two main digital mapping companies being owned by its competitors — although they’d still have to make the maps available to anyone who wanted to buy them. At the moment TomTom has a 28.3 percent stake in Tele Atlas, while Garmin has a 5 percent stake.

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