Chicago — Nokia received unconditional approval by the European Commission to purchase GPS map maker Navteq, here, and the parties now expect to close their $8.1 deal in the next five business days.
Nokia said the purchase of Navteq “will play a key role in our Internet services strategy,” according to president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.
Earlier this year, the European Commission approved TomTom’s purchase of Tele Atlas, the only other global GPS map maker. The $4.3 billion deal was completed last month.
Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, originally announced its intent to purchase Navteq last October stating that the deal would strengthen its location based services for both the Internet and portable devices. Nokia also stated that Navteq’s map data business will continue to be operationally independent but would become a Nokia Group company. Garmin is a key customer of Navteq maps.
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