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Garmin bid's for TeleAtlas

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  • 31-10-2007 1:41pm
    #1
    robinph
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,089 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    The Register
    I really doubt that it would ever make much of a difference to the cost of buying the maps though, well other than TomTom being charged more for them.


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    #2
    sharkman
    Registered Users, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 6,515 Mod ✭✭✭✭sharkman


    First TT wants Tele Atlas, Nokia wants NAVTEQ and now there’s the rumour about Microsoft wanting Garmin...


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    #3
    sharkman
    Registered Users, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 6,515 Mod ✭✭✭✭sharkman


    Tele Atlas has made an official response to the offer Garmin made this week with regards to the takeover of the map supplier. As was revealed in the media yesterday, Garmin is willing to pay € 24.5 per Tele Atlas share, making the total cost of a takeover no less than € 2.3 billion.

    Tele Atlas has now said they feel the Garmin offer is ‘superior’ to the TomTom offer. The Dutch company ‘only’ wants to pay € 21.25 euro per share.


    Headquarters
    Apart from the higher amount Garmin is willing to pay, Tele Atlas has also been assured that they would remain a separate enterprise with headquarters based in the Netherlands. As expected, this higher offer is preferred by the Tele Atlas board, and TomTom are aware of this. TomTom does still have a chance of beating Garmin to the punch though.


    Ultimatum
    During earlier talks, Tele Atlas and TomTom has agreed that TomTom could make a new takeover offer if a new candidate popped up, but it would be limited in time: TomTom now only has five days to decide whether they will make a new offer or not. If TomTom matches the offer Garmin has made, the Tele Atlas board will favour TomTom over Garmin. The deadline for this offer expires when the stock exchange closes on Thursday 8th November.

    Until the deadline expires the Tele Atlas board will continue to advise their shareholders to accept the TomTom offer. Only when it becomes clear that TomTom are not going to make a new offer, will the primarily agreement with TomTom be broken. The Tele Atlas board will also wait until the deadline expires, before engaging in real discussions with Garmin. This would also mean TomTom would get the short end of the stick, and € 20 million to cover their expenses.


    Shares
    Garmin has bought up a bit more than 5% of the Tele Atlas stock since 30th October, by normal trading. Capital management company Fidelity is the second largest shareholder with more than 10% of the shares. It’s not known what Fidelity will do with its shares.

    TomTom has not made any announcement with regards to what they will do with the shares they already own. This means that TomTom owns less than 5% of the shares so far, because revealing this is mandatory when a company or person owns more than 5% of a companies’ shares.


    Scenario
    TomTom is not commenting the current situation at this moment, but there is a good chance that TomTom will have anticipated this. So the odds that TomTom will make a counter offer are pretty big. Especially now that Tele Atlas has announced that TomTom does not need to beat the Garmin offer: matching it is already sufficient.

    The current Tele Atlas share price remains a problem though. This morning, a single share was valued at just over € 28. If it remains at this level, the question is: will shareholders be satisfied with an offer of € 24.5 per share.


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    #4
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users Posts: 24,010 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    Looks like TomTom have upped their original offer. There's nothing like a high-finance punch-up to get the juices running!


    http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200711070530DOWJONESDJONLINE000471_FORTUNE5.htm


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    #5
    robinph
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,089 Mod ✭✭✭✭robinph


    This is a bidding war that neither of them can afford to loose seeing as Nokia has already bought up Navteq. I expect Nokia doing that caught them both off guard and now there is only the one mapping company left for them to fight over.


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    #6
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,441 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    And here was me on the verge of buying a nuvi 360 ... think I'll wait a bit and see what happens now. Unless TeleAtlas pull their finger out and produce some decent mapping for Ireland between now and whenever Garmin switch to TeleAtlas maps (if they're successful in their bid, that is) this would mean a significant downgrade for all Irish Garmin satnav owners IMO.


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    #7
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users Posts: 24,010 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    Garmin has chickened out!

    http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2007/11/16/afx4348173.html

    I'm wondering whether they had any intention of buying Teleatlas. It could have been a ploy to make TomTom spend more money. If it was, the move certainly succeeded by $500 million. (I think it was dollars that I read somewhere, but it could have been Euro - can't find the original link)

    Now that's all over, it must be time to buy a Garmin!


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